RWBY Short-Story Anthology
by sungrass
Summary: Collects my entries for Writing Prompt Wednesday (the collection idea shamelessly stolen from shandromand, the WPW organizer.) and other things that don't work as a multi-chapter story. Stories range from dramatic to silly and anywhere in between
1. Writing Prompt Wednesday 11-30-16--Humor

Winter stepped over the threshold, feeling only more conflicted as the house's scent hit her nose. On one hand, the last six months in Mistral had been some of the most trying of her life. Finding and moving Spring to a safe location, rescuing a somehow important Ruby Rose from the bandit Tyrian, and helping her sister reunite her huntress team in order to find the Winter Maiden had been nerve-wracking, exhausting, occasionally terrifying, but ultimately rewarding. Though she didn't show it, she was glad she'd eat a hot dinner and sleep in a dry bed tonight.

On the other hand, the house belonged to Qrow. The dwelling wasn't particularly large or small, but it was cluttered with piles of huntsmen gear, tools, empty ammunition cases, and even more empty bottles of every size and shape. In the spaces free of debris, thick rugs covered the floor. Busts meant to look like mounted grimm heads adorned the walls, and furniture covered in animal furs rose out of the clutter like the sea stacks along the southern coast of Atlas. Winter stepped forward and the motion sent a bottle rolling behind one of the couches.

Part of her wanted to pretend General Ironwood had called her back to Atlas, walk out of sight of the cabin, and pitch a tent in the underbrush. But Qrow wouldn't fall for it, and though he wouldn't stop her he'd never let her hear the end of it. Plus, abandoning her companions would be a violation of mission parameters.

"Hey Uncle Qrow, you might want to hire a maid," Yang said, brushing some snow off her jacket. "It smells like someone spilled disinfectant in an armory."

"Ah damn it, my whiskey shelf over the reloading bench must have come loose again."

"You keep whiskey in your workshop?" Weiss asked, fighting to conceal her disapproval.

"Only the bottom-shelf stuff, ironically. Anyway, you won't notice the smell once dinner gets going. Ruby, if you remember how to make Branwen Stew—"

There was a blur of motion towards the kitchen, followed by several rummaging sounds, and the sound of Ruby chopping vegetables.

"—get started and I'll help when I'm done in the workshop," he finished. He took a pull from his flask and turned to the others.

"There's a weapon rack right next to the coat hanger. Make yourselves at home, help yourself to anything that doesn't say 30 years on the label, and we'll get sleeping arrangements set up after dinner."

Qrow looked directly at Winter. "I do apologize for the mess. Usually when I entertain women the lights are off." He winked and left the room.

Winter pinched the bridge of her nose. "Give me strength…" she murmured.

Weiss took Winter's saber and coat, giving her a reassuring squeeze on the arm before going to hang both up. Yang flopped down on the couch with a bottle of beer, prying the cap off by trapping it between the index and middle fingers of her prosthetic arm and flicking her wrist. Winter took a seat next to Yang, letting her head hang back. Blake took a seat at Yang's other side, a black scarf wrapped over her nose and mouth. Yang and Winter both raised their eyebrows.

"Night vision isn't my only faunus-enhanced sense," she said, sounding pained even through the scarf.

"Okay, I thought you were just dressing up as someone from that ninja book of yours" Yang said, grinning. Blake only glared in response.

"Whiskey bottles aside, I actually think this place is nice in a rustic sort of way," Weiss said, walking towards the fireplace.

"You don't mean that," Yang said.

"I don't not mean it. Honestly, after being restricted to the Schnee Manor for so long, you could stick me in a prison cell and the novelty wouldn't wear off for a couple of weeks. Besides, it may not be fashionable—or tasteful—but I doubt anything back home is as warm as some of this furniture looks."

Weiss flopped down on a fur-covered cushion big enough to seat all of Team RWBY comfortably. She hit it with a muted smack and winced.

"Ow! It's like there's bones in the stuffing. Warm though." Weiss' brow furrowed. "Really warm…"

The cushion rose abruptly, spilling Weiss onto the floor. She saw Winter and her friends staring shocked at a spot behind her and craned her head to see a massive beowolf with a coat so thick it seemed to be shrouded in shadow. A glyph flashed beneath Weiss, and she flew through the air, flipping to land behind the couch. The others were standing now, Yang and Winter at the front of the group. Before they could move the beowolf loped closer to the group, cutting them off from their weapons.

"How did that get in here?" Weiss shouted.

"Doesn't matter!" Yang said. "I'll keep it busy while you guys arm yourselves!"

"Leave it to me!" Winter said, light glowing around her as she prepared to summon something to fight the grimm. But Winter never got the chance. Ruby charged out of the kitchen, carving knife raised, and leapt towards the beowolf's back, screaming in fury as she flew.

"NO!" came a desperate shout. Before Ruby could bury the knife between the creature's shoulders, Qrow tackled his niece out of the air, the two of them rolling until they crashed to a stop in a pile of beer bottles. Qrow scrambled to his feet and lurched towards the grimm, placing a hand on one of its massive shoulders.

"He just wants to say 'hi'."

On cue, the beowolf leaned forward to draw its two foot tongue over Winter's face. Winter grimaced, then glared at Qrow speechless. Weiss and Ruby both stood dumbstruck unsure how to process the last minute. Yang palmed her face.

"Uncle Qrow, what the shit?" she said.

"Hey, language! He's impressionable."

"What is he, your pet?"

"He's not my butler."

"THAT IS SO AWESOME!" Ruby squealed, darting over to grimm and running her hands through its fur. She scratched under its chin and it let out a contented sound, its leg kicking the floor hard enough to rattle the liquor bottles in the cabinet.

Blake poked her head from behind the couch, the scarf fallen from her face. "People have tried to domesticate grimm for thousands of years," she said. "How did you manage to tame one?"

"Grimm can't be tamed," Winter said, her voice stony.

"Normally I'd agree," Weiss said, fascinated. "But this one hasn't attacked us even though we're unarmed. Can you think of any grimm that wouldn't attack easy targets in close quarters?"

"So far as I can tell, Beerwolf's just like that. I've tried replicating him with at least two dozen other beowolves; never came close to anything like my buddy here."

"Beerwolf?" Yang asked.

"It's how I knew he was friendly. Watch:"

Qrow produced an unopened beer bottle and clanged Ruby's knife against it. The creature swung towards Qrow, its ears perked up. Qrow lobbed the bottle towards the grimm and it caught it by the neck of the bottle with its mouth. One paw closed around the bottle and it snapped the neck off with a quick bite, spitting the neck into a trash bin. It downed the contents of the bottle and tossed the container into the same bin.

"Now I taught him to recycle, but I figure any grimm that can do that without prompting is tame."

"This is insane," Winter said.

"How come?" Qrow asked.

"IT'S A FUCKING BEOWOLF, QROW!" Winter said, her composure shattering. "You've done countless juvenile, rash, _irresponsible_ things in the time I've known you, but this is a new low of stupidity, even for you." Winter's face flushed and shoulders heaved as she struggled to catch her breath.

"Hey! First, He has a name. Second, just because I don't mindlessly follow codified protocol like certain _specialists_ doesn't mean I immediately let him sleep in the cabin. When I saw something might be different about him, I locked him up in a cave and let Oobleck and some of his academic pals take a look at him. When we were reasonably certain he wouldn't surprise us, we'd let him out to observe once in a while. That led to letting him roam free and locking him up at night, then only when I was gone on a mission. Only after doing that for a year with no incidents did I let him roam wherever."

"What do you feed him?" Weiss asked.

"Grimm don't need food, but he does like a nip of something on a regular basis. Despite the name, he'll drink anything that's been brewed, distilled, or fermented. Just never give him Vacuo tequila unless there's a deathstalker outside."

"Does it make him act like a regular grimm?" Yang asked.

"No, he'll just run off to fight the biggest grimm he can find. That sounds amusing, but in practice it's nerve-wracking trying to prevent a scientific oddity from committing suicide by bar fight."

Beerwolf stretched, picked a keg half the size of Ruby from a corner of the room, and guzzled the liquid within; dropping the keg and letting out a window-rattling belch before retrieving a fresh keg.

"He's got the right idea," Qrow said. "Now that we've all been introduced, let's just settle in and have a nice peaceful dinner."

Qrow and Ruby returned to the kitchen to finish cooking, while Blake and Yang cautiously moved closer to examine Beerwolf. Weiss looked from them to her sister, who stood rigid and livid in the center of the room.

"Winter?" she asked.

The eldest Schnee relaxed, her face unreadable. She calmly walked over to a glass faced cabinet and retrieved the oldest, most expensive looking unopened bottle of scotch from the top shelf. She opened it, taking a long pull straight from the bottle.

"Winter, are you sure you should be—"

"Let me have this Weiss," she said, defeated.

…

Light touched Winter's face and her head exploded. Dinner had passed in a drunken haze, accelerated by the bottle of scotch. After, Winter handed her scroll to Weiss and retired before the others, continuing to drink in the guest room for an hour or two, before collapsing on the bed. Now, her head screamed, her body felt leaden, and her throat was so dry it burned. She groaned, pressing the pillow over her head and attempting to turn onto her other side. Something heavy on her legs arrested her motion.

 _What the hell?_ She thought.

She raised the pillow and cracked an eye open to see Beerwolf curled up like a cat on top of the quilt, resting over most of her lower body. It snored, content. Winter sighed, pressing the pillow back over her face.

"I hate you so much Qrow," she groaned.


	2. Writing Prompt Wednesday 2-1-17--Humor

Writing Prompt Wednesday 2-1-17

Jaune entered the bar and a deafening wave of sound from conversation, laughter, and sports broadcasts washed over him. The walls were covered in wood paneling that had been nice decades ago, but years of rowdy patrons and indoor smoking had aged it. Cigarettes filled the building with a blue-gray haze and the smell of spilled liquor wafted over from a nearby table.

"Jaune!" a voice called. Weiss emerged from the crowd, her eyes wide. "Oh thank god you're here!"

"Man, what I would have given to hear that three years ago," he said, raising his voice over the din.

Weiss rolled her eyes, but her lips curved in a faint smile. "We can't have everything we want, can we?"

"Which is why you called _me_ for help."

"We're the only responsible people in the group tonight."

"Fill me in; a lot of what you said got drowned out by the background noise."

Weiss gestured for him to follow her and she led him away from the entrance, through the main room, and into a side room away from the crowd and noise—only to find it empty, save for a young couple entwined on a couch by a low table. Weiss scowled and leaned down, yanking them apart.

"Uh-oh, I've had this dream before and it doesn't end the way movies tell me it does," Sun said.

"Hey Weiss!" Blake said, her cheeks flushed. "And Jaune."

"Blake they're gone!" Weiss shouted.

Blake looked around. "Yang said they'd be right back."

"When was that?"

Blake checked her scroll then looked back up at Weiss, her ears flattened. "Promise you won't be mad?"

"Ugh! I'd expect this from anyone but you. Do you have any idea where—"

A round of cheers erupted from the rear of the bar. They followed the noise to a room with a padded section of the floor roped off like a boxing ring. Two mechanical grimm sat in the middle of the ring, bucking like wild horses. Yang and Ruby stood atop them, swaying back and forth while trying to down a glass of something bright and colorful.

Ruby stood atop her machine in a loose stance, leaning with the animatronic like a surfer, giggling the entire time as she took gulps of her drink. Yang almost fell off hers, then dropped into a seated position, trying to empty her glass. The machines' movement accelerated and grew wilder, tossing Yang about before throwing her and her drink off, towards Ruby. Ruby leapt to avoid colliding with her sister, landed, and wobbled long enough to empty her glass before she was tossed off her own machine. She rolled to her feet and thrust her arms over her head to enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.

"Oh," Jaune said.

"Exactly," Weiss replied.

"JAUNE!" Ruby lurched across the room, snaring both of them around the shoulders in a bear hug.

"Happy birthday Ruby," he croaked.

…

After finding Ruby, they all piled into a booth in a quieter nook of the bar. Ruby dragged Weiss and Jaune onto the bench so that she was sandwiched between them and recounted the night's events to Jaune.

"—hated the beer, hated the whiskey, and I was ready to punch Yang off her stupid barstool, but then she ordered me this:" Ruby indicated a curved glass filled with a thick brown milkshake that smelled like rum, her eyes sparkling.

"It's called a bushwhacker, and it is awesome," she said, her voice climbing from a conspiratorial hush to an excited squeal. She fell backwards into Weiss, giggling and batting at the end of Weiss' ponytail. Weiss shot Jaune a long-suffering look, and he nodded.

"Yang, how much did you give her? Jaune asked.

Yang pondered the question, face scrunched in effort. "Only three," she said, her words slurred and a little defensive.

"Only three _yummy milkshakes_ ," Ruby said, her tone reprimanding. She began to count with her fingers. "There was also the beer, the shot, the fruity stuff I had between the yummy milkshakes, the neon thing I drank on top of the mechanical ursa—"

Ruby paused, frowning at her hands now that she had run out of fingers. Jaune and Weiss glared at Yang, who blushed and took a long, slow pull from her beer.

"I left for thirty minutes _at most_ ," said Weiss.

"So why didn't you come out at first Jaune?" Yang asked, ignoring Weiss. "Afraid you'd bring 'Vomit Boy' back into style?"

Jaune sighed and Ruby laughed, contorting so hard that Weiss had to keep her from rolling onto the floor.

"I forgot about that! Now that you're older does that make you…Pukey Man?"

"That joke wasn't remotely funny," Weiss said.

"Weiss, you're my bestie, but you don't know anything about being funny. Stick to your strengths, like being pretty, and looking at things with disapproval."

The booth erupted into laughter. Yang doubled over, clutching her ribs, while Blake and Sun collapsed into each other; even Jaune had to suppress a few laughs. Weiss just groaned and shoved Ruby off her into Jaune. She looked up at him and grinned.

"Hi!"

"I take it you enjoyed your first legal night of drinking?"

She nodded, then reached a hand up to muss his hair. Her eyes widened.

"Weiss! You have to try this! His hair is almost as soft as yours!"

Ruby seized Weiss' wrist and made her feel Jaune's hair. She paused for a second, then repeated the motion, pressing Jaune's hand into Weiss' hair. Both of them froze while Ruby smiled at the tangle of limbs she had created. Blake and Sun watched, grinning at the scene. They sat in silence until it was interrupted by a loud thump. The sound of Yang laughing drifted up from beneath the table. Jaune and Weiss pulled their hands away at the same time, their faces scarlet, but before they could scoot away Ruby wrapped her arms around their shoulders and drew them close.

"Hey, thank you guys."

"For?" Weiss asked.

Ruby's expression assumed the fatigued gravity of a drunk discussing serious matters. "For getting along. I know you guys don't click as much as you do with other people in the group. But Weiss is my BFF, even if she calls me a dolt sometimes; and Jaune is my BFWIABF—"

"I'm your what?"

"That acronym killed part of my brain."

"—'Best Friend, Who Is A Boy, Forever'; it doesn't sound like I'm saying you're my boyfriend that way— _the point_ , is that you are both super important to me, and I'm grateful for you, and I appreciate that you both try to get along for me. It means a lot."

Ruby squeezed her arms around them a little tighter, and this time they reciprocated, forming a group hug.

"She really is a dolt, isn't she Weiss?"

"That's the wisest thing you've said in years."

Ruby made a distressed noise. "Such treachery after I bared my heart to you! Oh how will I go on?"

Yang nudged a fresh bushwhacker towards Ruby and she slipped free of her friends to guzzle it down. Jaune and Weiss reclaimed their personal space and poured themselves water from a pitcher.

"She's not that different," Jaune said. "Just more 'her' than usual."

"Unlike some people," Weiss muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"There's a reason I called you first."

Jaune began to reply when a pair of voices squealed his name. For the third time that night someone pinned Jaune in a hug. He looked over to see Nora standing by one end of the booth supporting an almost comatose Ren. Craning his neck around further, he came face to face with Pyrrha, her cheeks flushed nearly as red as her hair, which hung loose instead of being bound in its usual ponytail. She beamed at him.

"You've missed the most grand evening!"

"I'm—here now!" Jaune said, dumbfounded by the lack of Pyrrha's usual poise.

She let out a bright peal of laughter collapsing on Jaune's shoulder. Ren raised his head and whispered something to Nora that made them both giggle, swaying with alcohol and laughter. Jaune looked back to Weiss who shrugged. Ruby struck the table insistently a few times, flagging Yang's attention.

"What's next?"

"Well, we've popped your alcohol cherry and Pyrrha's, and Jaune and Weiss are going to be lame and not drink…we could grab food somewhere the not-lame people can keep drinking. I know a place that has fifty kinds of dessert shots."

Ruby grinned, turning to Pyrrha.

"What do you think Pyrrha?"

"It sounds grand!"

…

Several hours later, the group stumbled home through the snow towards the Vale bus; off-balance from drinking or supporting those who had.

"Who'd have guessed? The invincible girl's weakness is her liver."

"Weiss," Ruby said with a curious, childlike tone; leaning into Weiss. "Can you see Atlas from your high horse?"

"I imagine she can see it quite well when she's not pointing her nose into the air," Pyrrha said.

"Nikos, I swear—"

"Don't 'Nikos' me, Weiss!" Pyrrha said, jabbing a finger towards Weiss. "I could beat you with my hands tied behind my back—and I did that one time you froze my arms to my waist during sparring."

Jaune reached to coax Pyrrha's hand down. She snapped at his fingers like a puppy and he yanked his hand back, making her giggle and bury her face in his shoulder. This time it was Jaune's turn to give Weiss a long-suffering look, and she smirked in reply. The expression disappeared when Ruby came to a halt.

"Carry me, I'm tired."

"Ruby Rose, I will not—"

Ruby let her body go slack, leaning into Weiss hard enough to almost knock her over. She sighed and crouched down, letting Ruby wrap her arms around her neck and grabbed the smaller girl under the knees before standing. Ruby let out a tiny chuckle and kicked her feet. Pyrrha looked from them to Jaune.

"Jaune, I must confess—"

"Don't lie to your friends Pyrrha, you are not _that_ tired," said Weiss. Pyrrha scowled at Weiss, who turned and started walking. From behind her came a yelp of surprise, followed by a scuffle and the sound of crunching snow. A moment later Pyrrha walked alongside Weiss, her nose upturned, while a bewildered Jaune sat atop her shoulders.

"This is my life now," he said.

Weiss pursed her lips at him. "Look on the bright side. Between the photos Nora is taking and the amount everyone put away tonight, karma's going to hit like a truck tomorrow."

Ruby groaned. Then she shrugged.

"Eh, worth it. Best late birthday ever?" She reached a hand up towards Jaune.

Jaune shrugged and leaned down to give her five.

"Just promise you'll go easy next year."

Ruby grinned, and they continued through the snow to join the others for the bus home.


	3. Writing Prompt Wednesday 3-8-17--Humor

From the corner of her eye Pyrrha saw the attack would come the second she went to pour herself hot water for tea, from behind her and to the left. The boy in question was a first-year with greasy hair and a greasy smile. She felt her chest grow tight with anxiety. He had ignored her the last two times.

Pyrrha's eyes darted around the room, looking for some way out of the situation when she noticed the soup station next to the hot water dispenser. This would require perfect timing.

A pair of students lined up at the station and Pyrrha made her move, darting across the room and dropping a tea bag into her mug, subtly looking back the whole time. The boy moved to follow her and she poured water into her mug. He drew within arm's reach and opened his mouth, but before he could say a word Pyrrha twitched her Semblance at the student next to her pouring soup. The ladle jerked over his shoulder and beaned the greasy boy in the head. While he sputtered in surprise, Pyrrha darted off, weaving through the dining hall as fast as she could without drawing stares and joined Nora and Ren.

"I can't take this anymore," she said, laying her head on the table and covering it with her arms. "Everywhere I go, someone else is trying to ask me to the dance."

"You could just tell them no," Nora said, shrugging.

Pyrrha moaned. "It's _hard_. They're either so nice I feel like I'm kicking a puppy, or they're jerks who won't take no for an answer, like when Cardin's teammate tried to ask me out for the third time just now."

"You're allowed to punch those ones, hon."

"Then people will just start saying I'm some crazy, stuck-up jerk. It'll be Sanctum all over again." Pyrrha looked up at Nora. "Though I _did_ manage to make what I did to Russell look like an accident."

Nora grinned and pinched one of Pyrrha's cheeks. "My young disciple is learning!" she cooed.

"I'm six months older than you." Pyrrha shoved Nora's hand away and tried to look irritated, but her eyes ruined the attempt.

"Perhaps I'm oblivious to some feminine protocol, but why don't you just ask Jaune yourself?" Ren said. "Nora asked me before I knew there would be a dance."

Nora rolled her eyes and Pyrrha's cheeks tinged pink. "Girl Law has nothing to do with it. Despite her reputation as a certified badass, Pyrrha can't tell guys she _doesn't_ like 'No', and that takes a lot less courage then asking someone she does like. I keep telling her 'It's just a couple words; of course he'll say yes', but somehow she doesn't trust me. She'd rather show up to the dance alone instead of biting the bullet and asking Jaune; and instead of enforcing healthy boundaries with the other boys, she runs around hiding from them like a little mouse."

"The strategy works," Pyrrha muttered.

"Not all the time," Ren said, his eyes flicking to a point over Pyrrha's shoulder. Pyrrha turned white and glanced over her shoulder. A dark-skinned boy with a patch of pink in his hair was approaching her, holding a bowl of something. His eyes flickered when they met hers and his body grew tense but he managed a warm smile.

"Pyrrha, he's from Haven, you'll never have to see him again," Nora said. "This is a good chance to practice boundaries. Just repeat after me: 'No thank you'."

Pyrrha froze as he approached her, unable to muster words. So like any trained fighter she scanned the boy and his immediate surroundings for a vector of attack. No metal chairs or tables to block his way; nothing on his legs or shoes to trip him with Polarity—but his wrist displayed a large metal watch. She grimaced inwardly. This wouldn't be fun. The boy stopped next to her.

"Pyrrha Nikos?" he said. Pyrrha nodded, her expression neutral.

"I'm Nadir. I'm with one of the teams from Haven. I was just thinking since we're both from Mistral, maybe—"

Pyrrha tugged at his watch with her Semblance. His hand jerked and oatmeal flew from the bowl he was holding, coating her uniform blazer in mush. She feigned surprise while the boy stared in horror at what he thought he had done.

"Oh gods, I'm so sorry."

Pyrrha adopted her tournament persona and let out a gentle laugh. "Accidents happen, I couldn't be the Invincible Girl if a little oatmeal bothered me."

"Let me get some napkins—"

"It's fine, I'll have to change anyway. What were you saying just now?"

Nadir flushed. "Nothing, just wanted to wish another Mistral competitor good luck." The boy shuffled back to his table. The other boy on his team doubled over laughing, and the two girls each gave him a swat on the back of the head.

Nora sighed. "That was pathetic. You really are meant for Jaune."

"Nora, you need to go with me _everywhere_ between now and the dance. They won't ask me if you're around."

"Buddy boy just did," Nora said, gesturing towards the other team.

"But most of them won't! I'll figure something out for the ones who do."

Nora stared down Pyrrha, keeping her face neutral as she looked into her friend's strained, desperate eyes. Then she groaned, shaking her head.

"I do this on the condition that you never ask me to enable you again when this is over."

"You say that, but—"

"Ren, shush."

…

The plan worked for the most part. Boys circled like sharks with legs over the next few days, but they did so from far away. Pyrrha found it hard to study at times since Nora refused to do so in quiet locations, but it was a small price to pay for her new testosterone forcefield. Still, not everyone was driven away.

As they exited their final class of the day Pyrrha jabbed Nora with an insistent finger.

"Nora, its Sun."

"You don't have to worry about him, I think he's got a thing for Blake."

"But his friend is looking at me, some redhead. I think Sun's along for moral support."

"Gee, that must be a pain in the butt for Sun."

"You could talk to him, explain things."

"Or you could say 'no'. I agreed to be your entourage, not your sock puppet."

Pyrrha looked around. The crowd wasn't thick enough to disappear in, and the hall was long and straight with no corners until the ends. Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at the corner opposite the crowd.

"I have a plan."

Pyrrha yanked Nora's wrist and dragged her down the hallway, around the corner.

…

"Scarlet, this is officially worse than the week we had that monsoon and Neptune refused to leave the dorm alone. Just go up to her and ask."

"I can't man," Scarlet said. "She's way too cool for me to ask all casual, I need to do it just right."

"Well you won't do it at all if you don't hustle, they're headed away from us."

Scarlet followed Sun's pointing finger and jumped, fighting to move through the crowd. By the time they had passed through, the girls had disappeared. They hurried along the hall.

"Come on, they couldn't have gotten far, they have to be somewhere around—" Scarlet turned the corner and stopped.

Sun caught up to Scarlet. "Hey man, why did you—whoa."

They had turned the corner into an enormous gallery. It was a long shadowed hallway filled with historical displays. Paintings and tapestries lined the walls, plaques commemorated famous Beacon huntsmen, glass cases held weapons and artifacts, and statues and suits of armor stood guard over the hall's belongings. A few doors led off the hall, but for the most part it was a dead-end hallway.

"I don't see 'em," Sun said, lacing his fingers behind his head. "Maybe they went to get something out of one of the classrooms?"

"Maybe."

The two huntsmen walked down the hall, Sun idly taking in the hall's contents, while Scarlet squinted, trying to spot the girls in the gloom. Their footsteps echoed off the stone. They had walked about halfway through the gallery when a something let out a harsh screech. Scarlet yelped in surprise and leapt back, landing on Sun's shoulders.

"Sun, did you hear that?"

Sun rolled his eyes. "Yeah Scarlet, it was probably an old hinge. Real attractive by the way; I bet Pyrrha Nikos loves cowards."

"Quiet," he hissed. "I think I heard something."

Sun opened his mouth, but more screeching noises cut him off. Something moved ahead of them, where the shadows turned the hall pitch black.

"OOOOO!" a falsetto tenor cried out. "Sun Wukong! Thou hast tread upon hallowed ground."

Scarlet whimpered. "Sun…"

"Be cool man," Sun said, but his voice wavered.

More screeching noises came from in front of them and they froze as something moved in the shadows. A tall, slender suit of armor, easily seven feet tall stepped into view. It carried a mace, and three straight spikes angled back from the forehead of its helm. The helm pivoted to look directly at them. The voice sounded, hollow and dense like an explosion echoing inside a cave.

"Thou hast brought an amorous varlet into the Sacred Hall of Relics, and thine own heart beats fiercely for the sable ninja maiden of Beacon. This hall venerates the deeds of huntsmen and huntresses past, the trials of man against the onslaught of Grimm, and the indomitable fire of the human spirit. It is a place of honor and tribute. It is not a place of youthful frolicking and infatuation. You will leave, now."

Sun let out a nervous laugh. "Very funny. Is that you in there Sage?"

The armor cocked its helm at them. Then the armor's pieces separated and whirled through the air like a swarm of steel bees. A gauntlet flew to hover a foot from them and flexed. The helm touched down on its knuckles as if contemplating their presence.

"Dost thou still think I jest?"

Scarlet and Sun screamed, and Sun ran out of the hall, Scarlet attempting to steer his path from atop Sun's shoulders. After they had disappeared around the corner, the pieces of armor reassembled themselves atop an empty pedestal. Pyrrha emerged from behind a large statue and retrieved her scroll from inside the armor's helm. A broom closet swung open, and Nora tumbled out, collapsing on her side and clutching her ribs as she laughed. After a minute or so, she calmed enough to stand up.

"I take it back," Nora said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "So long as it keeps you coming up with wacky hijinks, I am going to enable the hell out of your inability to say 'No'."


	4. Writing Prompt Wednesday 6-21-17--drama

"Hrrmm."

"What is it, Adam?" Blake asked.

The taller boy shrugged. "Cinder's been off."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "You need to elaborate."

The semester break was drawing to an end, and teams RWBY, JNPR, and CEMT were enjoying the sunshine. Ruby and her sister were playing volleyball against Jaune and Pyrrha. Ruby had also somehow coerced Weiss into refereeing the match from atop a tall chair. Weiss had taken the opportunity to sunbathe, and merely ruled in favor of alternate sides of the court with every decision instead of actually watching the game, the other four either not noticing or not caring. Emerald and Mercury alternated between bickering, and challenging each other to different contests to settle their arguments. At the moment they were throwing a knife at a knot on a distant tree. Adam and Blake watched the teams, sitting beneath the shade of an oak.

"To clarify," Adam said, "I think she's always been like this. I just never noticed before that mess at the Vale harbor."

Blake nodded. "You were preoccupied with making sure no one found out about our past, so it slipped by your radar."

"Precisely."

"So what's the big deal? You two get along well enough."

"We _work_ well together; there's a difference." He shook his head and continued: "There's something under the surface. It leaks out when she's fighting, particularly when she's not fighting students; you saw her at the docks. Since then, I've noticed it a lot more often. She gets irritable enough to snap at _me_ , she starts sacrificing technique for power, and she broods for hours after."

Blake gave Adam a look.

Adam sighed. "It's different when I do it."

"Sure it is," Blake said.

"She's hiding something."

"You told me after your first night together that everyone on your team was hiding something!"

"Emerald and Mercury came clean when our secret got out; Cinder didn't."

That gave Blake pause. She looked over to where Cinder stood, near a set of picnic tables. Ren had managed to find a grill and was preparing an assortment of burgers, sausages, and other meats. Cinder occasionally stoked the flames with her semblance while Nora chatted with both of them. Occasionally, Nora would laugh at a joke she made or something Ren said. Cinder wouldn't laugh, but she would give her a small smile and her eyes would show sparks of mirth.

After watching for a few minutes, Blake spoke: "She's not always pleasant, but I don't think she has bad intentions."

"Maybe not," Adam said. "But if the other two are any indication, I think she's made some serious enemies. If she stole from the wrong person like Emerald, or ran from a bad employer like Mercury, that could bring serious trouble down on these kids. They aren't ready for that."

They watched Cinder take a pack of burger patties from Ren. One by one, she flicked them towards Nora and flash cooked them in midair with her semblance before Nora caught them in her mouth. This time Cinder laughed along with Nora.

"You know you have to talk to her," Blake said.

"I've tried, but she dodges the subject or shuts down every time the conversation goes the slightest bit towards her past."

"Then be gentle, but assertive. Explain that you respect that she needs to tell her story in her own way, but that you have concerns that ignorance of her past demons poses a threat to your team. Whatever you do, don't come at her guns blazing like you usually do."

Adam rolled his eyes. "Because she'll shut down?"

"Yes, but also because her secret might not be that bad. Just because everyone on your team wants a fresh start doesn't mean that they're all running from morally grey pasts."

Adam snorted. "I doubt we'll be that lucky."

Blake gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder. "We got out of the Fang in one piece, didn't we?"

Adam bobbed his head in admission. He smiled. "This is real, isn't it? Almost no one knows who we are, we have a world of possibilities ahead of us, you have a new boyfriend that's terrified of me—"

"He is _not_ my boyfriend!" Blake said, blushing.

Adam grinned. "If it makes him feel better, just lie and say I'm jealous of his abs."

…

"That is such a weird group."

"For once Merc, I agree with you."

The other half of Team CEMT stopped their contest to watch their leader. She was listening to Ren talk about the finer points of grilling, her eyes focused on his hands as he moved about the grill and prep table.

Emerald shrugged. "I know she's been trying to dial back her work ethic, but it's like she's a whole different person."

"Yeah, it's like the stick up her butt shrank three sizes," Mercury said.

Emerald smirked. "If that's what you call not being lazy, you could use a stick."

"Hey, it's easy for you guys! Adam likes the extra work, and you've got such a big ladycrush on her—"

"Hey!"

"—you never complain no matter how much she puts you through. I'm tired of her micromanaging the team down to each second of the day. I don't need her extra physical conditioning, and my grades will be fine without her hovering over my shoulder."

"Huntsmen tactics are a lot different than diving into a street fight or those— _situations_ —your dad trained you for. She just wants us to be a successful team."

Mercury let out a dry laugh. "Have you seen how she glares at Adam or Yang when she doesn't think anyone's looking? Or the look she gave Pyrrha when she beat her with that lucky hit? All she cares about is climbing the rankings. We're just tools to help her advance, or obstacles to her becoming the warrior queen of Beacon. She talks about growing stronger so much, I wouldn't be surprised if she turns into a supervillain."

"Don't be a jerk," Emerald said.

"All I'm saying is that I need to knock her down a peg."

"If you want to do that, maybe you should have come to conditioning this morning."

Mercury turned to see Cinder approaching, her expression humorless. She locked eyes with her teammate. "The food's almost ready. However, since you neglected to make up your exercises beforehand, I want you to do five hundred push-ups before you eat."

Mercury folded his arms. "Screw that, we're not in combat or training, you can't boss me around!"

Cinder shrugged. "I can't. But if you don't do it, I'll tell Nora to eat your share of the food. What's it going to be?"

Mercury glared at her for a moment, then fell to a prone position and started doing pushups. Cinder smirked at him and started back towards the rest of the group. "I'll be counting!" she called back.

Emerald glanced down at her partner as he worked through the set. He paused at the top of one and looked at Emerald.

"That's it. Let's see how she likes it when I make her look stupid."

Emerald pinched the bridge of her nose. "I object to whatever you're planning, but I also realize that I'd have better luck asking water to stop being wet than getting you to change your mind."

"You know me too well."

Emerald sighed. "I'll save you some hot dogs."

…

When Mercury finished, he sat down long enough to wolf down his dinner before storming off towards the training grounds. Everyone else lingered until the sun went down, then they gradually drifted back to the dorms. Emerald stretched her arms above her head.

"This was a great day."

"I'm glad everyone unwound a bit," Cinder said. "Tomorrow, we'll go over the teams that are coming to Vale to compete in the tournament."

"They haven't announced which teams are competing yet," Adam said.

A smile stretched from ear to ear across Cinder's face. "I have my ways, Adam."

"Does this mean we can skip morning conditioning?" Emerald asked. They turned the corner and walked down the hallway to their room. Cinder laughed.

"Hardly. The teams are remarkable this year, we can't afford to skip a minute of preparation. Even with my advance information, the only thing I know for certain is that this year is going to have a lot of surprises."

Cinder unlocked their room and opened the door. From the darkness inside, a massive humanoid shape sprung out at them with a terrible roar, its body covered in dark fur, its face bone-white. Emerald yelped and sprung back, throwing her arms up in defense. Adam dropped back into a defensive stance, reaching for a sword that wasn't there.

Cinder struck her palm into the beringel's chest and sent the creature flying back into the room with a burst of flame. She roared back in fury, striking the creature with a gout of flame as wide as a bowling ball. Someone shouted in surprise, and the creature scrambled under the bed. Cinder continued to bathe the room with fire, igniting beds, charring books, and setting anything that wasn't rated for combat alight.

Someone began screaming in pain. Adam and Emerald exchanged a look as they recognized the voice.

"Cinder, stop!" Emerald yelled. She grabbed Cinder's right arm while Adam grabbed her left. It took all of Emerald's strength, and most of Adam's, but they managed to wrestle her hands down to her sides.

"Cinder, it's over," Emerald said. "You can stop."

Cinder's hands danced with fire a moment longer, then died out. Adam ran past dozens of confused and startled students to retrieve a fire extinguisher, then put the blaze out. When the fires were out, a coughing sound came from underneath a bed. Mercury crawled out from beneath it, dressed in the singed remains of a beringel costume, a half-melted mask in his hands. He stood up and glared at Cinder.

"WHAT THE HELL? I knew you had a bad sense of humor, but you almost broke my aura, and you vaporized our room! What on Remnant is wrong with you?"

Mercury flinched as Cinder fixed him with a livid glare. Her chest heaved with deep, angry, breaths as she stared at him. She clenched her hands into fists, and her eyes grew so intense, it looked like she was trying to incinerate him with her mind. She took two heavy steps towards Mercury.

Then Cinder Fall, tyrannical leader, savage fighter, and owner of the most terrifying semblance of the Beacon first-years, fell to her knees and started to cry.

Her shoulders heaved with loud choking sobs, and tears poured freely from her eyes. She buried face in her hands and hunched over, as if she was trying to sink through the floor. Her teammates all exchanged looks of confusion and surprise. Emerald reached a cautious hand out to touch Cinder's shoulder. She slapped it away the second it brushed against her.

"GET OUT!" she shouted. She intended the words to be angry, but the effect was ruined by the break in her voice.

Emerald looked up at Mercury and glared at him. Mercury felt his face turn red.

"I think I speak for all of us when I say I thought this would play out differently," he said.

…

A couple hours later Glynda assigned Team CEMT an unoccupied dorm room after inquiring about the event and scolding Mercury. Adam, Emerald, and Mercury sat in the room in total silence. After some time, footsteps approached their door. Nora marched inside, strode up to Mercury and slapped him in the face.

"You're an ass!"

Mercury growled and rose to his feet, towering almost a full foot over Nora. "So I pulled a bad prank, big deal. I'm not the one who almost burned the building down! Why is she sending _you_ to fight her battles anyway? Too proud to admit she lost control?"

Nora gave Mercury a cold look. "Do you know what Ren and I have in common with Cinder?"

"Unresolved sexual tension?"

Nora grabbed Mercury by the collar and slammed him into a wall.

"WE'RE ALL ORPHANS, YOU CLOD!"

"So is Emerald!"

"Emerald didn't grow up outside a city wall."

Adam's eyebrows rose in comprehension. Emerald pressed her hands to her mouth. Mercury felt himself grow pale, and his stomach sank.

"Oh shit."

Nora dropped Mercury and folder her arms. "Yeah. She was in a place she felt safe enough to let her guard down and you violated that security. And by sheer dumb luck, you just happened to pick a costume that looked like the Grimm that killed her family and neighbors, before it hunted her through the Mistral wilderness for three days. If she hadn't just told us about it, I would have sworn you did this on purpose."

Mercury shook his head. "No, this is bull. You're telling me _Cinder_ is afraid of grimm? Forget the fact that she enrolled at Beacon and did well enough in initiation to lead a team, she's a frigging machine! She's trains constantly, bosses us around, and has enough anger for all four of us. You're telling me that girl is afraid of grimm."

"Why do you think she's so angry?" Adam asked. "Anger is a superb insulator. If you're consumed by rage, you don't have the capacity to dwell on how poor the situation may be. You don't second-guess yourself, and you fight at maximum effort. Even with its drawbacks and spectacular failures, it's a timeless coping strategy for those who don't learn a better way."

"Spare me your ex-terrorist wisdom."

Adam clenched his jaw, struggling to respond with calm. "Right. Because you've never relied on anger to keep you sane and alive."

Mercury scowled at Adam. Then he sighed, a sinking feeling spreading through his stomach. His shoulders sagged.

"Goddammit. Where is she?"

…

Mercury stepped through the door to the roof. He looked around and saw Cinder sitting with her back against the wall. She turned to look at him as he approached. Her eyes were still a bit red, but she managed a stern glare when she met his eyes.

"Give me one good reason not to throw you off the roof."

He shrugged. "Ozpin might not take your side this time."

Cinder sniffed. "It doesn't matter. You made me look weak. At least if I struck back, I'd get a bit of pride back."

Mercury sat next to her. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for what I did."

Cinder let out a dry laugh. "You're sorry you got in trouble."

"You're right about that. But after Nora told us why you freaked out, I do actually feel bad about opening up old wounds."

"Please, stop lying. You infuriate me with your stubborn attitude and lax work ethic, and I infuriate you by trying to make this team more than half-utilized potential. You'd like nothing more than to see me fail in the most humiliating fashion possible. Congratulations, you got your wish."

"You do get under my skin in the worst way, but I think I feel a little differently now. I'd like to move past this…mistake, and all our other baggage while we're at it."

"Why should I believe you?"

Mercury didn't answer for some time. Clouds drifted past, illuminate by Beacon tower and the moon, and summer insects sang on the ground below.

"What was your village like?" he finally asked.

Cinder blinked at him. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Humor me."

Cinder furrowed her brow at him, then turned to look up at the stars. She spoke, hesitant at first.

"It was in a small valley in rural Mistral. We had fields, an orchard; a spring that flowed from the hills. My family and my neighbors' houses backed up to a meadow filled with wildflowers, like something out of a storybook. My friends and I stole fruit from the orchard once in a while. The only time we got caught was when this horrible girl a year older than me ratted us out. She and her friends would make fun of how worn my dress was, throw mud at me, rub tree sap in my hair…I used to fantasize about a Beowolf climbing into her window and eating her, or a Nevermore swooping down from the sky and carrying her away."

A rueful smile spread across her face. "The best dream I had in the last six months ended with me saving the little brat and giving her a hug."

"That's why you came to Beacon, isn't it?"

Cinder didn't respond. Mercury shrugged. "Well, you're a lot braver than me."

"Don't patronize me."

"I'm serious. I came to Beacon because I made a lot of bad life decisions, and it was easier for me to hide behind the school walls for a few years instead of making things right or turning myself in to the police. Every day I spend here is a day I don't have to think about what's waiting for me after I graduate. You could have lived safe inside a city for the rest of your life, but you came here knowing you'd head back out into the wilderness to fight grimm. Even when we're on school grounds, that knowledge can't be far from your mind. Adam, Emerald, and I are all trying to escape our pasts. You're the only person on our team who's confronting theirs."

Cinder rubbed at her eyes. Her hand came away wet. She took a deep breath, then exhaled.

"I accept your apology for being a colossal ass. And I suppose I can be a bit more flexible, if you're willing to do the same."

"That's fair," said Mercury.

"I _am_ still angry with you. It might take a little while to move past that."

"Understandable."

Cinder bit her lip to keep from grinning. "If you're willing to obey one last order from Old Cinder, it might speed the healing process."

Mercury sighed, but a smirk crossed his face as he did so. "What is it?"

She told him.

Mercury balked at the order. "I don't think I've done that many pushups in a single _week_."

"Tell you what, she said. "Take as many breaks as you like, just have them done in twenty-four hours."

Mercury shook his head, but he assumed the position and started the exercises. He finished them in twelve hours.


	5. Writing Prompt Wednesday 8-30-17--drama

Prompt: Cinder or Emerald are adopted into the Schnee family instead of being discovered by Salem/Cinder.

* * *

Blake ran through the halls, her cheeks burning.

 _That ignorant, spoiled child!_ she thought. She came to a stop and slammed a fist against the wall, fighting the urge to scream. Slowly, she managed to force herself to take deep, slow breaths, her shoulders heaving. Everything was going to be fine. Sure, she had shoved her teammate rather hard, the girl most likely to blow apart her new life, at the culmination of an argument that would permanently color their relationship, but it wasn't unsalvageable. She had made the right stupid decision.

Instead of saying they were tired of being pushed around, Blake had simply pushed back.

When she had calmed herself, she began moving again, running to the Beacon library. Shortly after Ozpin had christened Team RWBY, Blake had found herself in need of a home outside their room when her teammates' antics became too noisy for her tastes. After a few days exploring Beacon, she found a group study room around a corner at the rear of the library. It required a key checked out from the front desk, but Blake had picked more difficult locks in the White Fang.

So when Blake turned from locking the study room door behind her to find Emerald sitting at the end of the room's table, she jumped back hard enough to rattle the door.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

Emerald cocked her head at Blake. "You think you're the only one who wants a little peace and quiet once in a while?"

Blake watched Emerald without replying. If Emerald had been a second Weiss, Blake wouldn't have given the last in the Schnee line of succession a second thought. But although she spoke with the same articulation in class and dressed in a similar color scheme—a white and black jacket with olive trim, white pants, and navy chaps—the girl acted nothing like the rest of her family, and the contrast unnerved Blake:

Emerald's speech grew more relaxed and sarcastic when no authority figures could hear her, her table manners matched Yang's, and her bearing was breezy and casual, with none of her family's formality. Schnee body language, all perfect posture and gliding movements was imperious, intimidating in its authority. Sitting with her feet propped up on the table and her fingers laced behind her head, Emerald appeared relaxed but aware, like a lion that only _looked_ too sleepy to strike.

"You need to leave, Emerald," Blake said, drawing up to her full height. "I am not in the mood."

"I thought this was a shared space."

Blake strode across the room and slammed her palms on the table next to Emerald. She shook, from her shoulders down to her hands, wrestling the urge to lash out at the other girl. Instead, she drew a long shuddering breath, held it a moment, then let it out.

"Please," she said, in a voice straining to stay level.

Emerald looked Blake over, then shrugged. She stood and walked for the door. Blake sighed, taking a seat and collapsing forward onto the table, burying her face in her arms. Emerald stopped near the door and turned back to face Blake.

"One thing before I leave: I've been wondering, what's it like to be a Faunus on the same team as my sister?"

Blake's heart stopped. She raised her head to look at Emerald, careful not to move too fast or too slow, restraining herself from showing a dozen tells. The other girl's eyes were warm and a tad self-conscious, like she was asking a stranger for directions and felt guilty about the imposition. Running would be an immediate giveaway, fighting would end poorly even if Blake won, so Blake chose to bluff and stall.

"Excuse me?" she asked, standing and taking a few steps towards Emerald. "That's a big accusation. I thought your family was subtle when they spread lies."

"Don't act like I'm stupid, Blake. You shower when the rest of your team won't be in the room to see you unwrap the towel from your hair, I have literally never seen you without that bow, no matter how appropriate it is for the situation at hand, and the fight you had with my sister tonight is not the first time you've gotten passionate about Faunus rights or the SDC's business practices."

"I—"

Emerald reached inside her jacket and flicked something at Blake. Blake caught it, looking down to see a small black journal. Blake's hand started shaking.

"I also found some questionable entries in your diary," said Emerald, pointing her chin at the journal. "You might be able hide things from your teammates, but they don't have an eye for hiding spots like me, or a knack for parsing a thief's shorthand—and except for Weiss, none of them would realize those dates line up with the theft of a train car full of dust."

Blake swallowed, setting her jaw. She looked up from the journal, livid. Then she pitched the little book at Emerald and ran for the door.

She charged forward, faking a dodge around Emerald, then activated her Semblance to block the other girl with a clone as she dove across the table. She had cleared half the table when she heard a rattle of metal and felt something wrap around her ankle. Blake jerked to a halt, faceplanting onto the table and sliding halfway off the end. Something yanked her back, and she slid across the table, back towards Emerald, landing on the floor. Emerald wrapped one revolver's chain around Blake's legs and rolled her onto her back. She straddled her, pinning her arms to her side and flicked the blade open on her other revolver, twirling it around by the grip.

"Tell me what you're planning to do with my sister."

Blake thrashed, trying to free herself, but Emerald simply rocked with the girl's struggles and squeezed her legs tighter.

"I'm not planning to do anything!" said Blake. "I came here to start over."

"You're lying, Blake. You expect me to believe that a former White Fang member, the daughter of one of their founders, just happened to end up on the same team, in the same room as my sister? Do you think I'm an idiot, or are you dumber than you look?"

"Help! I'm being attacked!"

Emerald clamped a hand over Blake's mouth and held the sickle against her neck. "If you don't stay quiet and answer my questions, I will stuff that stupid little bow in your mouth, and we'll stay here until I get the truth. So tell me: Why are you at Beacon?"

Blake glared at Emerald, and for a moment they both sat still, breathing heavily. Then there was loud crash and the door rattled in its frame. It shook once, twice, and on the third time the door came off its hinges. Emerald stood and pointed her sickle at the newcomer.

"Get back," she said. "If you come one step closer, I'll slice her face off!"

The newcomer rushed at Emerald, and she moved to counter the strike. Blake heard a wet choking sound. Emerald took two steps back, then collapsed on the floor, her throat opened wide. She made a gurgling noise as blood rushed from the wound, twitched once, then fell still as life left her eyes. Blake's eyes bulged in shock. She looked up to see a tall figure with red hair staring down at her.

"Hello Blake," said Adam.

Blake screamed, diving for Emerald's weapon. She grabbed it, rolled over and began firing, emptying the weapon with one hand while she untangled her legs from the chain with the other. Adam deflected the shots with his blade, but the action gave Blake time to stand. Her legs freed, she leapt at Adam, bringing the sickle down towards his head—and passing right through him.

Blake stumbled a few steps, catching herself on the door, once again securely locked. She looked around, confused. The weapon in her hand was gone. She turned around to find Adam gone, as well as the blood from Emerald's body. Emerald herself stood leaning against the opposite wall, her eyebrows raised.

"Huh. You were telling the truth."

Blake's confusion was replaced with anger. She strode over to Emerald. "What the hell was that?"

"My Semblance. Pretty cool, right?"

Blake seized the girl by the shoulders and slammed her against the wall. "I knew your family reveled in cruelty, but this is a new level of sadism."

"It wasn't sadism," Emerald said. "It was a test, and you passed."

"What?"

Emerald gave Blake a stern look. "You have to understand how it looks to me: A Faunus hiding animal traits in a school full of humans isn't unusual. But when that Faunus has questionable past ties and ends up on the same team as a girl whose family is constantly threatened by the White Fang, that sets off alarm bells. Your journal notes about the train seemed like an escape plan and not prep for a raid, but I couldn't be sure. Maybe it was all a cover story in case your team found out you were a Faunus and Weiss got suspicious."

Blake ground her teeth. "You couldn't have just asked me, or told Goodwitch you discovered my secret?"

Emerald shifted, an uncomfortable expression on her face. "I had to be sure. Your journal…Adam Taurus was clearly a major factor in deciding to run. I thought that if he tried to rescue you from a tight spot, and there weren't any witnesses around afterward, you wouldn't have a reason to pretend to be afraid of him. I needed a genuine reaction. I'm sorry about that."

Blake let go of Emerald and sank into a chair. "I don't know what to say."

"You could start by apologizing to my sister for literally pushing her into the wall. There's a crater in the plaster."

Blake glared up at Emerald. "I will not."

"I'm not saying she was right, but roughing her up wasn't the answer."

"Why do you care? You're not even one of them! Everyone knows you were adopted to improve Jacques Schnee's public image!"

Anger flickered across Emerald's eyes, but it was soon replaced with resignation. She sighed, her shoulders settling.

"I came to terms with that a long time ago. But unlike mother and father, Weiss and Winter genuinely care for me. We don't show it very well. Weiss and I drive each other insane with our differences, and Winter isn't great with feelings, but we all support one another in our separate ways. That's actually why I'm here. Winter thought it best that someone watch Weiss and let her fail, while protecting her from dangers she can't handle yet that Beacon may not be equipped to deal with. 'Dad' wanted a low-key bodyguard in case someone tried to kidnap her, and he's been trying to get rid of me for ages, so he agreed. Once Weiss graduates, I'll find Winter and help her however I can."

Emerald smiled a bit at that, forgetting Blake for a moment.

"Weiss isn't that bad," she finally said. "You've spent enough time with her to know she has some redeeming qualities, even if she is a sheltered twit sometimes."

Blake snorted. "That's an understatement."

"She's afraid of the Faunus, but she doesn't outright hate them. Not yet. I think I can help her grow into something better than her dad—and I'd be grateful if you could help as well. I understand if you won't, you've been through a lot."

Blake's fists clenched until her knuckles turned white. "You have no idea what I've been through."

Emerald bobbed her head in admission. She pushed off the wall and stood next to the table. She produced a notebook from her jacket pocket and began writing something.

"Not exactly, no," she said as she wrote. "But I wasn't born into luxury like my sisters. I know what it's like to consider eating two days in a row being well-fed; to feel lucky that the place you sleep is cold, but not wet; to be good enough at stealing when no one will give you a job that you don't have to resort to _other_ means of income. Even after being freed from hunger and cold, I'd still feel like a stray all the time if it weren't for three people, two of which are a long way from Beacon."

Blake stared at the wall, silent. Emerald stood, stowing her pen and notebook.

"I won't tell Weiss your secret, but you should tell her soon. She's naïve, and so single-minded she misses details she's not looking for, but she's not stupid. She'll figure it out soon if she hasn't already."

She handed Blake the piece of paper. Blake looked at the single line of legible but haphazard handwriting, then gave Emerald a skeptical look.

"What's this?"

"My scroll number," said Emerald. "Weiss is nicer than me once you get past her shell, but she may need a little push from someone she knows to open up in this situation. Plus, I'm not entirely selfish. I realize you may never trust me after what I've done this evening, but if you ever want to talk, I'm one call away. Everyone at Beacon has suffered, but almost none of them have been ostracized."

Emerald sauntered out before Blake could reply. Blake stared at the number on the paper for a few moments. She crumpled it up and went to toss it in the wastebasket. Then she paused, and put the ball of paper into her pocket. She drew out her scroll, swiped through the contacts, then stopped, her finger hovering over the contact she had pulled up. She took a breath to steady herself, then pressed the send button and raised the scroll to her ear. As it rang, her free hand drifted to her bow and fidgeted with it.

"Yang?" she asked. "I'm fine, how bad is Weiss? Okay. Listen, grab her and Ruby, and meet me in the library, towards the west end. I need to tell you all something."


	6. Writing Prompt Wednesda10-11-2017--Humor

Prompt: Nora Valkyrie: Ultimate Wingwoman

* * *

Pyrrha entered her room after her last class of the week, leaned on the windowsill, and sighed. They'd been back for weeks, and despite all the changes Pyrrha and her friends had experienced since coming to Beacon, this year was already shaping up to be very similar to the previous two in one very personal way. She stared out at the grounds below, her face glum as she watched first-year students flirt and gambol about.

"It's a good thing I'm not graded on my personal life," she said to herself. She continued to brood, and would have done so until well past dinner had the door not flown open moments later. Nora strode in.

"Pyrrha, I'm kidnapping you," Nora said, nonchalant. Before Pyrrha could respond, Nora grabbed her around the waist and tossed her over her shoulder. Pyrrha let out a surprised yelp, then immediately began to pry at Nora's arms as she carried her out of the room.

"Nora, put me down!"

"Nope!" Nora said. "This is for your own good."

"Put me down, or I will pour out every last bottle of pancake syrup from here to Haven!"

"Even if you could do that, you're bluffing."

Pyrrha growled in frustration and activated her semblance. There wasn't much metal in the hallway, but she managed to seize hold of every doorknob on their side of the hall. Nora tugged Pyrrha along, straining against her new magnetic anchor, her feet digging furrows in the thin carpet. She bent forward and heaved until a cracking sound erupted in the hall and a few doorknobs flew free of their doors. Nora stumbled forward and dropped Pyrrha, who shook her head and began scrambling away. Nora lunged and seized Pyrrha's ankle.

"YANG!" Nora shouted. "Santa Claus!"

Pyrrha turned just in time to see Yang pull a sleeping bag over her. Pyrrha shouted in frustration and punched at the fabric as she felt both girls carry her off, afraid to use her semblance without a clear line of sight. A short while later, she heard a door close and felt them set her down. She heard the sound of a zipper from the end of the sleeping bag and felt it start to open.

"Careful Yang," Nora said.

"Nora, it's Pyrrha. She wouldn't hurt a—WHOA!" Yang broke off, blocking Pyrrha's fist with her arm as Pyrrha burst from the sleeping bag, throwing a series of punches at Yang.

"I—regret—giving you—boxing lessons!" Yang said, as she bobbed and weaved back from Pyrrha. Pyrrha drove Yang halfway across the room until she stumbled into a knee high box and tumbled onto her back. With Yang temporarily incapacitated, Pyrrha rounded on Nora, taking in the room in the process. They were in a stone storage room filled with boxes and crates, probably underneath the dining hall or the library. Nora stood between her and the door, arms folded.

"Why the hell did you drag me down here?" Pyrrha asked.

"Because there's no metal in here to help you escape," said Nora.

"But _why_ are we in a room with no metal? Why did you two feel the need to do this? I usually take your hijinks in stride, but—"

"Technically, they're shenanigans," Yang said, climbing to her feet.

"I DON'T CARE! WHY?"

"Because you needed an intervention," said Nora.

Pyrrha froze mid-gesticulation. She lowered her arms and arched an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, what?"

Nora sat on a low couch they had placed in the room and patted the space next to her. Pyrrha sat next to Nora and folded her hands on her lap, giving her friend a wary look. Nora placed a hand over Pyrrha's.

"Two years, Pyrrha," Nora said. "Two years, and you're still pining after Jaune. You've had plenty of chances to do something. Several dances, two summer breaks you didn't have to dedicate entirely to training back home—"

"The fact that you two share a room," Yang interjected, claiming a nearby chair.

"—exactly! This isn't good for you. You need to do something about this unrequited love of yours or let it go."

"It's not that easy," Pyrrha said.

"Sure it is," said Yang. "We just need to buy you smaller shirts."

"No Yang!" Pyrrha slumped back against the couch. "He doesn't see me that way, even after all we've been through."

"Only because you haven't tried to carry yourself as anything different," Nora said. "You just need to change his perception."

Pyrrha rested her forehead on her palms. "I don't know how. Everyone else has had more experience with dating than I have. I guess it's just not meant to be something I'm good at."

Nora regarded Pyrrha in silence for a moment. Then she flicked a finger at Pyrrha's temple. Pyrrha jerked back, startled, and glared at Nora.

"No," Nora said. "None of that, this is a no-moping space."

"Nora—"

"I said no." Nora placed a hand to her chest and continued. "I blame myself. I thought that you two would stop being dorks and that nature would take its course. Clearly I was wrong, and I need to help Jaune see you differently."

"How are you going to do that?" Pyrrha asked.

Nora hooked a thumb towards her chest and grinned. "Simple. I am Remnant's Greatest Wingwoman!"

"Oh no," Pyrrha said, massaging her brow.

"It'll be a piece of cake! There's a thing tonight in Vale for the older students, a bunch of teams from the other schools will be there. I'm helping out a couple other people, squeezing you in my schedule won't be hard."

"I have so many concerns about this."

"Pyrrha, you can either go along with my plan, or you can stop complaining forever because none of us are going to listen anymore. What'll it be?"

Pyrrha held up her hands in defeat. "Fine, I'll do it."

"Woo!" Nora leapt up and high-fived Yang.

"First things first," Nora said. "Wardrobe."

"I have clothes," Pyrrha said.

"Not like this you don't. Yang, the trunk."

Yang dropped a large steamer trunk next to Pyrrha and undid the latches. Pyrrha looked inside. Her eyebrows rose and a small smile touched her face.

"I thought you'd like that," Nora said.

…

The lounge the older students had reserved to host their gathering possessed the perfect atmosphere for soon-to-be full huntsmen: Tasteful wood walls, soft light, and conservative décor gave the impression of maturity, but a large bar and frequently updated jukebox were concessions to their relative youth. The large amount of people filled the normally sedate lounge with noise, echoing with conversation and the rattle of glassware. Pyrrha watched Jaune high-five Ruby across the room as they finished a story they had been telling their table. She fidgeted with the hem of her dress, a white tunic-style garment that hung from one shoulder and came to her knees. Pyrrha drained her drink and spun on her barstool back to the bar, making her wire-banded ponytail swing like a pendulum.

"I can't do this," she said.

"Of course you can," said Yang, sitting to Pyrrha's left. Her sundress was pale yellow, trimmed in soft reds and oranges that gave the impression of a smoldering ember. It appeared to glow as she raised her arm.

"Hey, barkeep—"

Pyrrha seized Yang's arm. "I said 'no alcohol'."

Yang rolled her eyes. "A strawberry sunrise and _another_ pineapple juice on the rocks."

"Why are you even here?" Pyrrha asked.

"I bet Nora that she couldn't help you."

"But you're trying to get me drunk."

"Handicap," Yang said, accepting her drink. "I mean, I want to be wrong, I just don't think I am."

Pyrrha scowled at her drink, sipping at the straw until it started to make noise.

"Angry is actually pretty cute on you Pyrrha," Nora said, sitting at her right. "Jaune might go for that."

"Don't patronize me."

"Seriously, it's like a puppy trying to be a wolf."

Pyrrha groaned. Nora giggled and rubbed her shoulder.

"Come on, you know I'd never steer you wrong. I know I don't always do things the *normal way*, but I always get results, don't I? Just sit here for a bit and watch me work my magic for my other clients, and I guarantee you'll feel better about the plan."

"You haven't actually told us—"

"Yang, shush. Barkeep, a shot of gin!"

Nora took the shot, but instead of drinking it she spilled it down the front of her dress. She cracked her knuckles, slipped out of her leather jacket, and walked towards one of the bigger tables with an exaggerated sway.

Yang drained her drink, grinning.

"This is gonna be good."

…

Twenty minutes later, most of the lounge had taken part in an impromptu arm-wrestling tournament, initiated when Nora cajoled Sage Ayana into a match that she 'barely won', and threw the gauntlet to everyone else present. Yang declined, pointing to a polaroid of herself posted above the bar with pictures of other patrons, all of which hung beneath a sign that said 'FINAL WARNING'. But almost everyone else had competed and lost, leading to Nora locking grips with Coco at a small table.

"You feel tired Nora," Coco said, a glimmer of ferocity underlying her usual detachment. "I thought you'd be a lot more challenging."

"Maybe you shouldn't have had Yatsuhashi go easy on you," Nora said, grimacing. "Then I'd really know what you can do."

Coco growled at the taunt, and Nora echoed her as they both strained against each other. For half a minute they were locked in stalemate, their arms quivering so hard the table beneath them started to rattle. Then without warning, Nora's arm went down as Coco drove forward, powering through so hard that she knocked Nora out of her chair, flipped the table, and sent herself tumbling head over heels towards the ring of spectators. Sage caught Coco bridal-style without rising from his seat, and she let out a sheepish laugh.

"Boy, am I glad I wore trousers tonight."

"That was impressive," Sage said.

Coco waved her hand. "I never saw her as much of a challenge."

"I'm surprised you can see anything wearing those things inside."

Coco folded the arms of her askew sunglasses with her mouth, then hung them at her throat. "I only take them off when there's something worth seeing."

Nora returned to the bar, losing her sway as she sat down, and flashed Pyrrha a grin. "Barkeep, water please!"

…

The lounge returned to normal for another half-hour. Jaune had moved onto Velvet, but unlike Ruby, their body language seemed to be more than companionate. Pyrrha felt her heart plummet like an anchor and had turned to summon the bartender, when a high-pitched shriek came from outside. The bar emptied onto the back patio, following the sound. Ruby stood beneath a very tall tree with no low branches, pointing towards its top.

"He climbed up and he can't get down!" she said.

Everyone looked up. Eighty feet up the tree a black and white blob the size of a large cat sat on the branch. The blob barked, then whined.

"You've got to be kidding me," Pyrrha said.

"Can anyone get him down?" Ruby pleaded. "I don't have enough aura to use my semblance after arm-wrestling Nora.

"Same with me," Sun said. The crowd murmured, trying to figure out a way to get up to Zwei. Nora disappeared into the crowd and returned with Scarlet. She dragged him next to Sun and pointed at him.

"Can't he fly?" she asked.

"It's more like gliding, really," Scarlet said.

"Exactly," Sun said. "Normally one of us would launch him, but we're all tapped out."

Nora pondered that for a moment, then snapped her fingers. She picked a fork off a recently vacated table and disappeared inside. The building's lights flickered. A moment later Nora returned, her hair standing on end, the fork smoking at the tines. She took hold of Scarlet and led him through the crowd to the tree.

Pyrrha saw Scarlet shoot up, letting out a scream of alarm that he managed to turn into something more daring and dignified as he neared Zwei. He alighted onto the branch, picked up Zwei, then glided back down to the patio below. Ruby took hold of Zwei and thanked Scarlet, who was immediately beset by the cheering crowd.

Sun looked from Neptune to Blake. The two exchanged a look, then Sun clapped Neptune on the shoulder.

"Hey, if anyone needs us, Blake and I are gonna make out while flipping the bird in the general direction of Atlas."

Sun and Blake disappeared, leaving Neptune standing next to Weiss, who was still staring at the crowd surrounding Scarlet.

"That was absurd," she said. "Very gallant, but absurd."

"He does stuff like this all the time," said Neptune. "We all do. We actually saved a Mistral diplomat's family from a bunch of ninjas once."

Weiss snorted. "You're kidding."

"The story's pretty good, whether or not you believe it. You want to hear it?" Neptune offered Weiss his hand. She smirked, then took his hand as they walked back inside.

Pyrrha watched the exchange in disbelief. Most of the crowd was heading back inside now, Scarlet taking up the rear with Velvet and a few other girls. Nora, only looking a little smug, came back to Yang and Pyrrha with Ruby and Zwei.

"Except for Sun and Blake, no one's the wiser," said Nora.

"How did Zwei even get in the tree?" Pyrrha asked.

A rose petal slipped from beneath Zwei's collar. Nora wordlessly handed Ruby a folded stack of Lien, and held a plate of meat out to Zwei, who gobbled it down and barked. Ruby winked at Pyrrha, then headed back inside.

"You laid it on a little thick with the whining, boy," she said to the dog.

…

Normally Pyrrha enjoyed the privacy of a booth, but at that moment it felt confining. Sharing a bench with Yang didn't help. Pyrrha's eyes flicked across a drink menu, searching for something palatable but strong. The ground rule she had laid out to her unsolicited entourage was growing increasingly hard to keep with every new step Nora laid out in her plan.

"—so after _that_ , you'll have a choice to escape the warehouse: Go left, and you play the swooning damsel while Jaune tackles an obstacle I've tailored so that you couldn't possibly pass it without him. Go right, and you get to save the day by using your semblance to make an escape route; you'll even get to swing through the air like Indigo Jones, only with a crane instead of a whip."

Nora spread her palms. "So what do you think?"

Pyrrha's mouth moved like a beached fish's before she managed an answer.

"No," Pyrrha said.

"Seriously?"

"Yes! Nora I love you, but this plan is far more convoluted than anything I've ever heard."

"You saw my other plans work."

"They could have failed at multiple points if someone hadn't acted like you assumed they would, they dragged unwitting bystanders into them, disrupted people who weren't dragged in, and were incredibly dangerous. And what you just proposed to me is all that to a factor of ten!"

"Yeah," said Yang. "I have concerns about this one, and I _never_ get concerns about things."

"See?" Pyrrha said.

Nora held up a placating hand. "I know it sounds crazy, but I know you two. If this doesn't work—"

"Then it means the world is sane and rational! Nora, if some contrivance is what it takes to get Jaune to notice me, then it was never meant to happen."

After the words left her mouth, a solemn look fell over Pyrrha's face. She downed the rest of her water, stood, and forced her way past Yang out of the booth. Tables had been pushed back to form a small dance floor in one section of the room. As she passed through the crowd, she flicked her wrists, snapping the thin gold wires that bound her hair with her semblance, and letting it fall in a flaming cascade past her shoulders. The wires coiled into loose bangles around her wrists, glittering in the light. She pressed on to find Jaune dancing with Ruby, Ren, and a few people. Pyrrha took him by the shoulder, dragged him off to the side, and locked eyes with him.

"Jaune Arc, I have something to say to you."

Jaune raised an eyebrow. "Okay."

Pyrrha took a deep breath, then blew it out. "I've known you for two years, Jaune. Two years, four weeks, three days. We've trained until we couldn't stand, fought hordes of Grimm, helped stop the attack on the Vytal festival—plus that whole thing where Ozpin almost turned me into a demigoddess—my point is that we've grown close while doing countless dangerous, terrifying things, and the one thing I've let fear stop me from doing is saying that I love you."

Pyrrha blinked as if she hadn't expected to say it. Jaune's eyes grew wide, but Pyrrha pressed on before he could interject:

"I think it started as a simple crush, but it grew past that a long time ago. The care you show others, your dedication to improving yourself; even the little things, like that sigh you make when you know something's going to be a struggle but you want to do it anyway. I'm fortunate to be your friend, and I've wanted to move beyond that for almost as long as I've known you. But I've spent so long keeping away guys who are only interested in my status or my looks, that I don't know how to let in someone who actually likes me for me."

Pyrrha took another deep breath and clasped Jaune's hands.

"So would you, Jaune Arc, like to go on a date?" Her heart stopped as the words left her mouth. She stammered a bit, then began to ramble. "I'm sorry, it must feel like I'm pressuring you after telling you all that, but if you don't feel the same way that's fine, I just need to know—"

"Pyrrha, of course I'd like to go on a date."

Pyrrha froze, not trusting that she'd actually heard what Jaune said. He shrugged.

"I'm a little surprised—and I feel pretty dumb for that, a lot of things make more sense now—but I think I'd really enjoy going on a date with you."

Pyrrha clasped her hands behind her back to keep from punching the air in triumph. "Excellent! When are you free?"

Jaune smiled. "If you feel so strongly about it, we could go now."

Pyrrha smiled back and they headed for the exit, linking arms as they passed through the door. Nora ducked back into the booth as she watched them leave and let out a pleased sigh. She began tapping at her scroll.

"My work here is done."

"You didn't actually do anything," Yang said.

"Maybe. Or did I give her an option so unpalatable I forced her to put on her big girl boots and ask him out herself?"

Yang stared at Nora for a moment, then shook her head and tossed her a roll of Lien. "So you just made up that last crazy plan?"

"Oh no, that was _Plan B_." Nora raised her scroll to her ear. "Hey Junior? Cancel that thing I hired your guys to do in an hour. Don't worry, we're square now. Thank you!" She set down her scroll and smiled innocently. Yang gaped at her.

"Yang, it's not crazy if it works."

"I take it that means you had something to do with Jaune and Pyrrha's conversation," a voice said. Ren appeared next to the booth. Nora nodded. She pulled Ren into the booth, wrapped an arm around his shoulder, and gave him a peck on the cheek. She drew a pair of aviators with pink heart-shaped lenses from her jacket pocket, put them on with her free hand, and leaned back against the seat.

"It's good to be Queen."


	7. Writing Prompt Wednesday 10-18-17--drama

Ghira had planned for a sudden evacuation ever since they'd arrived at Menagerie, so it hadn't been hard to adapt for an additional eight people. Ghira had led most of the guards, and the three huntsmen and the young boy who had arrived with Blake's teammate around the city, some of them dressed in cloaks to act as decoys. The rest of the guards escorted Kali, Blake, the rest of Blake's team, and Sun away from the coast, towards a pass through the mountains at Kuo Kuana's back, intending to double back to a fishing village down the coast. But news of Sienna Khan's passing had arrived fifteen minutes too late. Had they moved a few minutes sooner, the charges wouldn't have been set.

Team RWBY had been nimble enough to protect Kali and avoid the worst of rock slide, but it had hammered their aura and taken out several of the guards. Adam's insurrectionists had struck with overwhelming force, a young man in gray hitting several of them before they could defend themselves. Cut off from the city, they retreated, the remnants of Ghira's guardsmen staying behind. They ran to a valley that held a small plantation, found a vacant house, and hid in the cellar, hoping they'd pass the structure by in the dark.

Looking around, Kali's chest ached at the sight of her guardians. Weiss Schnee sat huddled in a corner, her left arm in a sling. She had summoned a massive knight to protect Kali from the rock slide, but before it could attack anyone, the boy in gray had incapacitated her arm. She tried to maintain her composure, but sobs came out as a pitiful sniffling noise. Yang had taken out several of the White Fang, and had bought the guards time to organize when she'd collapsed a narrow section of the pass, but the effort had exhausted her, requiring Sun and Kali to drag her to their hiding place.

Kali's attention kept drifting to Blake, a pang of guilt stirring every time. One of the White Fang had fired some sort of gas. Blake had escaped the cloud fairly quickly, but her stamina had faded rapidly, and she'd collapsed when they'd found shelter. She lay still on the floor, her breathing soft and rasping. When Blake was seven a fever had left her bedridden in a similar state for a week, and Kali had lain next to her every night, holding her hand, much like her daughter's injured partner did now. Despite her unresponsive stupor, Yang would utter a weak but defiant growl if anyone but Kali approached Blake. Despite their dire situation, Kali felt a small smile. Blake had always struggled to make friends…

"I'll do it. There's too many of them to fight at close range."

"There can't be that many left, Ruby."

"We've both seen Mercury fight, Sun! You know you can't beat him."

"And you can?"

The argument snapped Kali from her reverie. She turned to see Ruby and Sun fighting near the bottom of the stairs. Ruby was lucid enough to shoot and reason, but she was supporting herself on her scythe, holding her sprained ankle off the floor. Sun was the only one of their group aside from Kali who hadn't been incapacitated, but his aura was low, and Kali had watched the man Ruby mentioned. None of them could fight him in their state. Kali approached both of them, her stomach in knots.

"What are you two planning?" she asked, her voice soft but assertive.

Sun spun towards Kali. "Ruby wants to hide in the forest and take potshots at whoever comes towards the house, but she can barely move right now. Even if she makes it out there without someone seeing her, they'll kill her when they figure out where she's shooting from."

"I'll be fine!" Ruby said, leaning forward. She slipped and Sun caught her shoulder to keep her from hitting the floor. Kali turned and gave Sun an appraising look.

"And I suppose you're going to fight off our pursuers until help arrives with nothing more than a lifetime of swagger and your staff?"

Sun blushed. "Well when you put it that way, it sounds dumb—"

Kali held up a hand and Sun stopped. "Even if both of you went out, you'd get yourselves killed. We can't meet force with force. That doesn't mean we can't fight, but we have to be smart about it and delay it as long as we can. I have an idea that might throw them off or slow them, at least for a little while."

"What do we do?" Ruby asked.

"The two of you stay down here. Your friends will recover in time if they have a chance to regenerate their aura, but they need your protection now. There's only one entrance to the cellar, and you have enough weapons to discourage anyone from coming down. Set up a barricade and shoot anyone that's not me until my husband or Ruby's uncle can find us. I'll be upstairs."

"Mrs. Belladonna you can't—"

"I have to. I need to delay them from finding out you're down here for as long as possible, because when they do, you'll have about five minutes before they decide that it's safer to burn the house down instead of trying drag you out. All the aura in the world won't help you breathe."

Sun and Ruby fell silent. Kali took each of their hands and squeezed. A wan smile crossed her face.

"This isn't the first time someone's tried to murder me or my daughter. Knowing my luck, it won't be the last."

Sun let out a dry laugh. "What's the plan?"

"Show me everything we have on hand."

Mercury strode down the road alongside a gaunt Faunus with tiger claws, leading three other men behind them. They drew to a halt in front of a path leading off the road. The man next to Mercury nodded down the path.

"Good eye," Mercury said. "You think that's the spot?"

The soldier next to Mercury nodded. "There weren't any signs they ran into the forest. That's the only place they could have run."

Mercury grinned. "Alright. Remember. My boss wants the pipsqueak in the red cloak alive. You guys do what you want with the rest."

"Just so long as you remember that we'd prefer to take the Belladonnas alive."

"I'll respect that, but I can't make any promises if Blake decides she's got one final wind."

The tiger-clawed man grunted. The five of them proceeded down the trail, weapons drawn.

The modest house sat in a nestled against the edge of the forest. It had been painted white years ago, but years of sun and dirt had caused it to yellow slightly. Small windows the size of plates were set into the front wall, their curtains drawn. A man large enough to fold Mercury in half with straight ribbed horns like an Oryx stepped forward, his boots stirring up swirls of dust as they clomped up the steps to the porch. He tested the door and it rattled in its frame, locked. He shrugged, then raised his foot and began kicking at the door, right next to the lock. The wood around the lock splintered after a few kicks and the door opened a few inches, stuck on something just inside the door.

"Some barricade that was," he rumbled. He wedged his hands in the gap and slowly forced the door open inch by inch. "Come on out little humans."

A figure moved in the dark a few feet back from the door, holding something the approximate size and shape of a bucket. The man instinctively shrank back and threw up his arms, but he wasn't fast enough to avoid being splashed. Hot oil splashed over his arms and sides and the man lurched back, bellowing in pain as he stumbled back and fell over the porch railing.

The man with tiger claws started forward, but Mercury caught him by the shoulder. Mercury raised one foot and fired a barrage of shots from his boots, splintering the door into pieces. Inside they saw a figure retreat back from the doorway. Mercury nodded.

"Now go."

The tiger-clawed Faunus charged through the breach, joined by a woman with an armored tail. The entryway was strewn with toppled and shattered furniture, and an empty steaming pot. Two doors lay ahead, one blocked with an upturned table and a heavy bookshelf, the other clear. As the two White Fang charged in, they saw the figure from before disappear through the clear doorway. They followed, staggering and tripping over the debris strewn across the floor. As they ran through the house, they passed other blocked doors. A door slammed shut around a corner and they came to a pair of doors on opposite sides of the hall. The man took the one on the right, while the woman drew a curved sabre as she passed through the door on the left. Inside, a heavy bookshelf had been turned on its side to act as cover. The woman strode towards it, blade raised.

Kali slammed the door shut behind the woman and locked it. As she turned, Kali shined a flashlight in the woman's eyes, blinding her for a few seconds, causing her to turn her head away and swing her sword wildly. Faunus night vision was frequently a useful asset, but it made sudden changes in illumination more jarring than it did for humans. Behind her the tiger-clawed man began pounding on the door.

Kali darted forward and struck the woman on the wrist with a chair leg, smacking the sabre out of her hands, then reversed the swing, clubbing her across the face and staggering her. The woman went down, but twisted with Kali's strike, managing to sweep Kali's legs from underneath her with her tail. Kali struck the floor, catching herself on her hands and letting her scramble forward towards the woman's sabre. She snatched the sword up and climbed to her feet. The woman was kneeling, clutching her head with one hand as she looked about for her sword. Her eyes found it just as Kali brought the blade down towards her shoulder. Kali swung again and again until she was satisfied the woman was no longer a threat. Her shoulders heaved with the effort she had just expended.

The door behind her began to splinter as the tiger-clawed Faunus began to break through the door. Kali went to the wall by the door, crouching just to the side of the doorframe, sword in hand. The door flew open as his kick finally broke the lock. Kali swung at the man's knees as he passed through the door, tripping him. She rolled him across the floor with a pair of kicks towards the sideways bookshelf, then pulled it down on top of him, pinning him to the ground. The man thrashed against the bookshelf, wheezing as it presses against his lungs, moving only by inches. He peered up to see Kali, sword in hand.

"When I get free, you'll beg me to kill you."

"I don't think so." Kali raised the blade and brought it down in three hard strikes. Satisfied the man was finished, Kali looked up, taking stock of her surroundings. No one had found them yet, but she heard footsteps pounding through the halls, growing louder. She dashed to the window, opened it, and slipped out, closing it behind her.

Kali pressed herself to the side of the house and crept around the back. A quick peek showed that the cellar doors were still locked, and there was no sign that Sun or Ruby had tried to shoot through them. Swallowing a lump in her throat she padded along just beneath the windows, listening for the other attackers. She pressed her free hand to her chest, trying to calm herself. She heard at least one of the men inside, searching the house and increased her pace, passing the cellar and rounding the corner to walk back towards the front of the house.

Just before she reached the side of the porch something whistled through the darkness, and struck her wrist. Kali cried out, dropping the sword and clutching at her wrist. She reached to pick it up, only for a tongue of metal to knock it away. Shadows blurred towards her, seized her wrist and bent it behind her back, drawing a cry of pain from Kali. The shadows lightened, revealing a girl Blake's age with a curled ponytail.

"Well done, Lady Belladonna," Ilia said. "I don't think any of us expected that from you." Ilia let out a whistle, then she marched Kali back inside, steering her by the wrist with one hand, prodding her weapon into Kali's back with the other. Ilia guided her to the kitchen, shoved her into a chair, then held her rapier point to Kali's throat, pressing on it without piercing the skin. The kitchen was filled with older appliances and a rough, large table. A couple pots and a kettle were simmering atop the stove at the far end of the room. Mercury, the fourth Faunus, and the horned man Kali had splashed with oil, all entered the room, responding to Ilia's whistle. The horned man growled at the pots. Even with aura protecting him, the skin on his arms had grown red from the hot oil. Mercury chuckled, his eyes roving over Kali.

"Pretty slick," Mercury said. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Blake's always been a crafty kitty, I see where she gets it from now. Do you know where they happened to run off to? I've got business with her friend, and my associates have business with her."

"I don't know where they went," Kali said.

"That was the plan? They run, and Mommy stays behind and fights their battles for them? I think you're lying."

"Obviously," Ilia said, scorn in her voice.

Mercury turned his attention to Ilia. "You know something?"

"You checked upstairs, right? I didn't find any tracks outside leading to the woods, but there was a locked cellar door. They have to be down there."

Mercury leaned so he was inches from Kali's face. "Think you can help us get them out the easy way? It'd work out better for you and your daughter—well, slightly better."

"I would rather die," Kali said.

Ilia pressed the tip of her weapon against Kali's ribs. "I'd be careful saying that right now."

"Why are you helping them, Ilia?"

"Because they're giving us results. Things picked up a little after your husband left, but that was nothing compared to what we're accomplishing now."

Kali stared up at Ilia. "Even if you were making progress, and not just wreaking vengeance, they don't care about you! My daughter and her team told me what these people want. Maybe the White Fang will achieve their goals, but the moment they do is the moment these people get rid of you."

"I think we've proven we can take care of ourselves."

A sad smile crossed Kali's face. "I never doubted that for a second. You always looked out for Blake, especially when she stayed behind. I will always be grateful for that."

Ilia's blade wavered as Kali met her eyes. "She'd still welcome you back," Kali said. "Even after all that's happened between you, if you had a change of heart she'd greet you with open arms."

The horned man growled and stood up. "Just kill her. We only need one traitor, and she's not going to help us."

"Oh I don't know," Mercury said. "Maybe we could convince her over a cup of that tea she's brewing." He grinned, baring his teeth. "Fresh from the pot."

A cruel smile crossed the horned man's face, and he walked towards the stove. Ilia's eyes flicked between Kali, Mercury, and the other White Fang, but she held her weapon in place. She swallowed a lump in her throat. Kali tensed as she watched the horned man reach for the kettle on the stove, steam billowing from the chrome spout, but not yet whistling.

"I'd offer to add some honey," Mercury said. "But I think adding something soothing defeats the—"

Kali dove to the floor, away from Ilia's weapon. Heat would agitate lightning Dust crystals, but they could still be handled without detonating if someone handled them delicately. The horned man yanking the kettle off the stove was not delicate.

The explosion filled the kitchen with steam, arcs of electricity, and metal shrapnel. Kali heard pained shouts through the ringing in her ears, and her eyes burned in the steam cloud. She crawled under the table and scrambled towards a door leading out of the kitchen. The room around her filled with the sounds of the other four people crashing into the table and walls as they stumbled in the haze. Mercury's boots fired twice, and a small pistol cracked.

Kali had climbed to her feet and had just passed into the living room when something slammed between her shoulders and sent her sprawling onto the floor. She rolled onto her back to find the horned man staring down at her. The electrified shrapnel from the kettle had left gashes across his face and upper body. A piece of metal protruded from his hip, making his gait lopsided, and what remained of his right hand was red and messy. He yanked Kali off the floor, then pinned her to the wall, his injured forearm pressing against her throat. Kali's vision filled with spots as the man held up a knife with his uninjured hand.

"I'll give you a choice," he said. Ears or fingers?"

Kali glared at him. "Fingers."

Kali thrust her palm into what was left of the man's right hand. He howled in pain and stabbed forward. Kali ducked her head to the side as the knife lodged in the wall by her head, barely missing her ears. Kali drove a knee into one of his chest wounds, and he dropped her and staggered back, bent over protectively. He began to rise, but Kali was quicker. She yanked the knife from the wall and slammed it into his neck before he could strike. He drove forward in one final attack, but Kali sidestepped it, and he crashed into the wall and fell still.

Kali whipped around searching for danger, her lungs burning. No one had intervened, and it appeared no one was coming for her, which could only mean one thing. She ran for the room she had prepared for a final stand to retrieve something they had taken from a fallen guard.

"Here we go," Mercury said, limping up to the cellar doors at the back of the house. He yanked at the doors, testing them. They were locked from the inside as well. A spike of pain shot through his shoulder, and he let go of the doors, clutching at the wound, still oozing blood.

"Troublesome bitch," he muttered. He stepped back from the door and raised one of his boots to point at the hinges on one side. Something made the wood on the back porch creak, and he hopped back, just in time to avoid someone striking the spot where he had stood.

Metal clashed on metal and he shuffled back, blocking a swing, and turning aside a thrust, eventually firing his boots to help him somersault several meters back, stumbling a bit as he landed. The aftermath of the explosion had left him sluggish, but he still managed to create space between himself and his opponent. He stopped in a defensive stance once he had some breathing room and glanced over his opponent.

Kali stood between him and the cellar door. She wielded an ornate trident. Its prongs were flat and curved, evocative of a leaf or a tongue of flame, and its base was tipped with a metal weight. The weapon shook in Kali's hands. Her ears pressed flat against her scalp, and her eyes were wide, but she held Mercury's gaze, and her voice was firm:

"Walk away," she said. "You don't have to do this."

Mercury grinned. "I kinda do."

The trident shook more violently for a moment, then grew still. There was a moment of stillness in the night. Then Mercury lurched forward with a shout, aiming a roundhouse kick at Kali's head. Kali raised the trident and deflected the blow, throwing Mercury off balance, but he managed to plant the deflected foot on the ground and channel his momentum into a straight kick with his rear foot, firing his boot. Kali swung the butt of the trident to turn away the kick, but the boot and gunfire still grazed her arm. Kali let out a cry of pain and stepped back, while Mercury tumbled onto his back after being turned aside. He clambered to his feet and fired a few shots at Kali, who dodged two, and deflected a third. They stood for a moment, panting with exertion.

"Give it up," Mercury said. "Save your energy."

Kali grit her teeth and charged forward. Mercury came at her in a lurching run, grinning. She'd telegraphed her attack. Kali thrust the trident in a straight strike at Mercury's chest. He leapt, landing on the trident head, ran up the shaft and kicked Kali in the collarbone and face, flipping back to reposition himself for one final blow. Mercury landed on his hands to perform a handspring—then tumbled onto the ground as his shoulder collapsed, the joint erupting in pain. He screamed in agony and fury as he clutched his shoulder, fighting to keep from writhing in pain. He pushed himself to a sitting position, but before he could stand, Kali ran the trident straight into his belly.

Mercury's eyes bulged in shock. He coughed, and blood sprayed out, staining his mouth. He looked up at Kali, bruised and winded, but alive, her face neutral. Mercury smirked and fell onto his back.

"Not bad."

Kali crept back inside, listening for the others that had followed them to the house. Her breath hissed through clenched teeth as she clutched at her arm. Her stomach churned with every step. Her victory against Mercury had been a near thing, and the others were fresh, they were alert—

Kali entered the kitchen to see the fourth White Fang sprawled on the ground, dead.

She tread forward and prodded the body. Definitely dead. Something creaked in the next room, and Kali spun towards the sound, raising her trident. Nothing but shadows in the room beyond. Then she saw a slightly darker patch of shadow stir. She moved towards it, cautious.

Ilia lay sprawled across the floor, her skin almost pitch black. Her forearms were covered in a crosshatch of cuts, and her hand, slick with blood, clutched her side just beneath her ribs. She brandished her weapon as Kali approached, then lowered it as Kali leveled the trident at her. She coughed, a wet and rough sound.

"Go ahead," she said. "It's done." Ilia closed her eyes, and went rigid. A moment later, excruciating pain shot through her side and she cried out in pain, her shouts echoing into the night.

"Shhh, I'm sorry."

Ilia felt her hand get pried away from her side and felt something press into her wound. She felt herself pulled by her shoulders into a sitting position. She opened her eyes to see Kali binding a cloth in place over her wound with a strip of material torn from her dress. Ilia uttered a confused moan.

"Why?"

"I shouldn't be alive right now," Kali said, ignoring her. "The man with the horns blocked most of my little booby trap—the gray-haired boy shouldn't have been injured as badly as he was. It seems I've been very lucky tonight, and I don't make a habit of questioning luck. Especially when it helps keep my daughter alive."

Kali began examining the cuts on Ilia's arms, and Ilia began to cry.

Blake stirred. Her skin felt clammy, and her head felt faint and muddled. Warmth pressed against her on both sides. She opened her eyes and saw Yang's hair trailing across her chest from her left.

"Hey Sweetie."

Blake turned to see Kali lying on her other side. Her mother gave her a tired smile, but there was contentment in her expression. Blake started to return the smile, when she saw the bruises on Kali's face, and the bandages wrapped around her arm. Her eyes shot open, but before she could say anything, Kali took Blake's hand in hers and began stroking it with her thumb.

"It's okay! It's not pleasant, but it looks worse than it is. Please don't worry, Ruby and Sun have done that enough already."

Blake still looked concerned, but she gave her mother a slow nod. "How did you do it?" she asked.

"I trusted my judgement."

Kali's eyes flicked towards her feet and Blake followed her gaze. Ilia lay unconscious along one wall, her head resting on a folded jacket. One of her wrists dangled in the air, suspended from an exposed pipe by a set of handcuffs. Her face was an uncomfortable grimace, but her breathing was steady. Blake's eyebrows rose for a moment, then they settled down.

"That raises more questions," she said.

"Answers later?" Kali said. "We both need to rest."

Blake nodded and squeezed her mother's hand, and they both drifted off to sleep.


	8. WPW 10-30-17--Late Halloween special

"I can start."

Everyone turned to look at Velvet. Deep in the woods behind Beacon, near the edge of the grounds, Yang had set up Ruby's traditional birthday celebration: snacks, cider, and scary stories around a campfire. Teams RWBY and JNPR all sat on logs or in folding chairs encircling the campfire, along with Sun and Neptune. Coco had led CFVY to the campfire after seeing a poster stating the open invitation to anyone wanting to join. She had been mildly disappointed that the cider had not been the adult variety, but she had quickly recovered, sharing a thermos of something with Fox and occasionally chuckling, their cheeks flushed. Shortly after everyone ate, the crowd's louder personalities had all jockeyed for the first story. Velvet had clamped her hands over her ears in discomfort until she had been struck with how to get them to quiet down.

Yang snorted. "You're going to scare us? I've seen desk lamps more intimidating than you."

" _Yang..._ " Blake said, her voice dripping with admonishment.

"What?" Yang got up and sat between Jaune and Velvet, hooking an arm over her shoulder and pointing at her. "Velvet's great, but she doesn't exactly make me shake in my boots. Stick to what you're good at, like taking pictures and driving all the boys crazy."

Velvet puffed out her cheeks, glaring at Yang, then composed herself and gave Yang a rather haughty glare. "Well, I can be quite the raconteur. I think I can start the night off with a bang-unless more than your hair's yellow."

Yang's eyes narrowed at Velvet. She lowered her arm and started knawing at a marshmallow without breaking eye contact. "Game on, little bun."

Velvet shooed Yang and Coco over a few feet so the rest of the circle could see her properly. She sat still for a moment, letting the fire crackle and watching the embers from the fire twist up towards the moon. Just as Yang was about to taunt her, she spoke, turning her Menagerie accent into something smooth and flowing, like a large menacing snake.

"Have any of you heard the tale of Rime Schnee? I expect not, the Schnees aren't fond of imperfection under normal circumstances. And Rime Schnee's flaw brought more than shame to her family: It threatened to bring down the entire Schnee family. She couldn't control her Semblance."

"Hold up. Weiss tells me it's hard to do some of the really fancy stuff with her Semblance, but how is that scary for anyone who doesn't have some stuffed-shirt jerk for a dad?"

Velvet gave her a frosty look. "Yang, are you impatient, or are you derailing me to hide your fear?"

Yang threw up her hands in defeat. "Lame," she muttered.

Velvet sniffed, turning back to the group. "Yang does raise an interesting point: Rime's problem wasn't struggling to use her Semblance, her problem was that it would sometimes run out of control. Gravity glyphs pulling down chandeliers, speed glyphs sending her into hedges in the garden or slamming straight into walls, that sort of thing. She could control it a bit with focus, but her father kept her in the manor so she would never need to defend herself, thinking that she would be safe despite her inconsistent control.

"But that didn't last. Faunus relations weren't as bad back then, but the Schnees still had plenty of enemies. One day, a business rival sent a doll in a parcel addressed to Rime's younger sister-a doll possessed by a geist. The Grimm killed their maid after she opened the parcel, and chased the young girl through the house, cornering her in a closet. Rime arrived just in time to slay the Grimm with a brass candlestick and saved her sister. The geist had merely been a distraction though. In the chaos, a hitman had taken Rime's mother hostage after failing to kill her father, locking himself in her father's study. He had blocked the one door, but there was a small window in the wall behind his desk. Rime summoned her new familiar, and it dispatched the hitman with incredible ease. Between saving the lives of her mother and sister, and finally obtaining an avatar to summon, it was the happiest day of Rime's life, and for a while, things were good.

"Then...things started to happen. Rime's new minion would spontaneously appear without warning, and she would have a difficult time unsummoning it-not a big deal, Rime was used to having her Semblance act erratically. But misfortune followed Rime. Following an afternoon in the garden, a groundskeeper tripped, impaling his leg with a pair of hedge shears. After helping bake a cake for her younger sister, a cook was badly burned when a gas leak ignited in the kitchen, and a butler fell to his death over a banister while making the rounds one night. Between the accident and a strange feeling of being observed, rumors spread that the manor was cursed and staff quit. Rime was distressed by the misfortune in the air, but all through the troubles, her new summon kept her company. It had been a marvelous doll before she'd destroyed the original, dressed in a coat, corset, and slacks, paired with a dainty little umbrella."

The entire campfire was watching her now. Nora looked unimpressed, and Coco was a bit bemused, but most of her audience was watching, entranced, or a bit nervous. Velvet took a sip of cider, then continued, her voice a witch's rasp:

"It all came to a head one dark winter night. Rime was reading downstairs in the study with her parents, while one of the few remaining maids gave her younger sister her evening bath. From upstairs there was a loud 'WHUMP'"-Velvet struck the log bench with her hand, making several people jump-"Rime and her parents rose as one to investigate, most of their staff having quit or left for the night. They ran upstairs, dashing straight to the bathroom to find the maid sprawled on the floor, her head lying in a pool of blood and water, and Rime's sister floating face down in the tub as though someone had tried to drown her. Her father managed to revive her, but as soon as she had awoken she began screaming in terror, unable to recall what had transpired. A sweep of the grounds revealed no one. Unable to find a culprit, they assumed that the maid had tried to drown the young girl, then slipped on the water she had splashed in her struggles. They went to sleep with the remaining staff in a small wing of the mansion, easily guarded against intruders.

"Rime woke up later that night, her heart in her throat, but she couldn't say why. She passed out of the small room she shared with her sister, and hurried down the hall, running towards the room her parents had adopted, tossing open the door. Inside, her mother lay splayed on the bed, throat slit open, Rime's summoned doll standing over her. Rime screamed, and tried to dispel the summon, but it stayed solid! She tried to toss it about with gravity glyphs, but in her panic, she merely ended up destroying the room. Her summon strode towards her, drew a sword from within its umbrella, and would have killed her right there, but her father summoned a Beringel he had slain in an expedition south, and it pinned the little summon.

"Rime cried, begging forgiveness. Her father merely picked her up, cradling her head, reassuring her it wasn't her fault, carrying her for some time. Eventually, they came to her father's wine cellar. He opened a bottle and drank deeply from it, offering his daughter a sip. She declined, eliciting a sad smile from her father. Then he seized her by the shoulders, and tossed her against the back of the cellar, his summon doing the same for Rime's summon, then he slammed the door shut, locking them in! She banged against the door, screaming to be let out, begging to be freed, and then she just screamed. The screams changed as the hours went by, eventually dying out.

"For a week, the door stayed locked, sounds occasionally leaking through, but the rogue summon never reappeared. They opened the door once to look inside, but they didn't dare disturb what they found. The summon was gone, but in its place was a doll dressed just like Rime, its face smooth, featureless, and white."

The campfire crackled in the dark. Then Nora broke the silence with applause and a thrilled "Ooohh!" Yang scoffed.

"How was that supposed to be scary?"

"Because Rime Schnee was a real person," Velvet said.

"Yeah right."

"Actually Yang," Weiss said. Everyone turned to look at her. "Rime was a real Schnee. She was one of my Grandpa Nicholas' aunts; her and her sister Glacia."

Yang's eyes bugged out a bit. "Really?"

"Really." Weiss narrowed her eyes at Velvet. "I'm actually very curious how you found out about that chapter in our family history."

Velvet shrugged. "I hear things. Did I get any part wrong?"

Yang waved her hands. "Whoa whoa whoa, this actually happened?"

"She did have trouble with her Semblance, and she was locked away, but the rest is kind of sketchy. The story Velvet told is just something servants like to tell new staff members."

Yang laughed a little too loudly. "I'll admit, that was alright, Velvet. That little kernel of truth-"

Yang turned to find a translucent blue doll the size of Ruby sitting between her and Velvet. She screamed, leaping away from it, and several people echoed her. She screamed until her breath came out in a whine. The doll just stared at her, motionless. Then it faded away in a cloud of pixels. Velvet grinned at her.

"Gotcha."

Yang looked around, to see several of her companions recovering from the same fright she'd experienced, while several others were suppressing giggles. She looked down to see she was clutching Jaune, who was pointedly ignoring how Yang pressed against his side. She narrowed her eyes at Velvet.

"You planned that." She jabbed a finger at Weiss. "Traitor!"

"Hey! We didn't plan anything!" Weiss said. "I...just sort of improvised when I saw you being a jerk to Velvet."

Yang's eyes turned red. She growled at Weiss, clenching her fists hard enough to make Jaune wince. Weiss withered under Yang's gaze.

"Well I never," Blake said, deadpan. "A Schnee colluding. I'm astonished."

The whole campfire broke into laughter, even Yang joined in after a few moments. Her eyes returned to lilac and she released Jaune, scooting back towards Velvet. She took the Faunus girl's hand and shook it.

"Why do you even have a picture of that?" she asked.

Velvet summoned a light copy flashlight from her camera and shined it under her face, waggling her fingers. "Spoo-ky!"

Yang laughed.

**A/N** If anyone wants to continue, I tried to leave the door open for virtually any character to show up at the campfire, although there's certainly enough prospective storytellers here.


	9. Source Text

This idea came when I was reading through a discussion thread about how Blake might react to discovering fairy tales are real. Enjoy!

* * *

Weiss shifted uncomfortably. Shortly after Ozpin/Oscar and Qrow had stepped out to 'run an errand', Blake had arrived along with Sun. First there had been crying. When Yang came downstairs, the crying quickly turned to shouting. The shouting grew louder, accompanied by shoving, and peaking with Yang flipping furniture. It culminated with the shouting melting into loud sobbing as the two reunited partners fell to their knees, clutching each other like drowning sailors clinging to a buoy. When they had calmed down, Ren set out tea and some leftovers, and Ruby began catching Blake and Sun up on what Ozpin had revealed.

The change had been subtle. Even after the fight had passed and Yang had expressed forgiveness, Blake had huddled close to Sun, looking at the wall to avoid meeting Yang's eyes. As Ruby spoke, Blake's face showed the same incredulity that they'd all displayed when they'd learned the truth. When she heard how Ozpin was the wizard and the roles Cinder and Pyrrha played, her ears twitched straight up. Then she grew sober, the emotional storm of the reunion forgotten, her face becoming more and more stern as they told her the story. Everyone else was so overwhelmed by her return or so focused on filling her in, that no one noticed the shift that had made Weiss's hair stand on end until Ruby had finished. Ruby blinked at Blake.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "I know it's a lot to take in."

Blake set down her mug slowly. She pressed her hands against the tops of her thighs, pursing her lips in thought. Then she looked up and locked eyes with Ruby.

"Is that everything?" Her voice was quiet, but it possessed a grave and steady quality that chilled the room. Glancing around the circle, Weiss saw that everyone was starting to feel the same way she did. Ruby's mouth hung open for a moment before she managed to swallow a sizeable lump in her throat.

"Yeah, that's all we know. You're kind of freaking me out a little, Blake."

"Good," said Blake. She looked around the group once. "He didn't give any of you additional information?"

Everyone else said 'no' or shook their head. Blake rubbed her face, as if she could simply wipe her frustration away. She took a shuddering breath, then exhaled.

"If that's true," she said, "There's something you all need to know."

The door swung open at that moment, slamming into the wall. Qrow stumbled in, followed by Oscar. Oscar closed the door, then turned his head in confusion. Qrow blinked, then threw his hands up in an intoxicated flail.

"Great! We got more huntsmen!"

Blake rose to her feet and turned her back on the pair. "Team meeting, out back, now," she said. She looked at Jaune, Nora, and Ren. "You too."

"Um, you're Blake, I guess?" Blake turned to see Oscar standing next to her. "This is going to sound odd, but there's someone who says they can help you understand what's going on."

"I said 'Team Meeting'," Blake snapped. "You aren't part of the team."

A green light flashed across Oscar's body and the young boy stood erect, his eyes filled with a sage's confidence.

"Perhaps not, Miss Belladonna," said Professor Ozpin. "But I feel I can still offer valuable perspective. If you might recall, your team was but one of many I oversaw during my tenure as Headmaster."

Blake seized Oscar by the collar and slammed him into the wall, with enough force to crack it.

"You two-faced bastard!"

The room burst into chaos. While Oscar dangled from Blake's grip, Ruby darted towards Blake and attempted to pull her hands off Oscar. Qrow caught Blake in a headlock, squeezing her throat. Blake slapped at Qrow with one hand, holding Oscar with the other. She started to feel lightheaded, but Yang and Sun pried Qrow off her and the feeling passed. Qrow pulled free of the two blondes and put up his fists, only to find the two of them squared off against him. Jaune joined them, sword in hand, while Ren tried to hold him back. Ruby froze, her head jerking between her uncle and her friends like a broken animatronic. Everyone was shouting, but it all faded to a low roar as Blake locked eyes with the person inside Oscar.

A sound like a cross between a gong ringing and a bomb exploding rang out, and everyone flinched. They turned to look at Nora, who held Yang's gauntlet in one hand and the large iron wok she had fired it into in the other.

"Everyone calm the hell down!" she said. Qrow and the group that had almost fought him stepped back from each other, but never looked away. Ruby was huddled against the wall, gasping like she'd sprinted to Haven from Vale in the span of an hour. Weiss had wrapped an arm around Ruby's shoulder, whispering reassurances while she held her hand. Nora's attention drifted to Blake, who still held Oscar's body to the wall.

"Blake, let him down."

"No," Blake said.

"Blake—"

"It's alright, Miss Valkyrie," Ozpin said, clear despite the pressure against his throat. "She has every reason to be upset."

"Please stop," Ruby said, her voice quivering. "We're all on the same side."

Blake glanced to Ruby, then back to Ozpin, and then she let go, letting him collapse to the floor. She let out a heavy sigh.

"We may be on the same side, but that doesn't mean we want what's best for each other."

Blake walked over to Qrow and plucked his flask from his pocket. She took two heavy swigs from it as she walked back towards Ruby, then slid it into her pocket. She turned to face the group, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Would someone who isn't a wizard or an alcoholic care to summarize the Tale of the Four Maidens?" Blake asked.

After a moment of silence, Ruby spoke, stammering with uncharacteristic timidity: "A lonely old man gave four sisters magic to thank them for being kind to him."

"That wasn't the only thing he gave them…" Blake muttered in sing-song.

"I don't understand."

Blake shook her head. "I'm holding you all to unrealistic standards," she said. "That version has been popular since a few decades after The Great War ended. You heard it from a big pastel volume with a watercolor painting on the cover, right? _Tales of Ages Past_? Even I had it as a kid. After the Great War happy endings sold better, but it's still possible to find the original versions of many old stories in _Pallas' Fairy Tales_. My dad had a copy from his grandfather and he—"

Blake broke off and pressed a hand to her chest. She took another pull from Qrow's flask, inhaled and spoke again:

"Not many people know the full stories because so few go back and read the original versions. Most of them have endings we'd label 'dark' now because fairy tales were considered cautionary tales for children back then. _The Ogre of Kuchinashi Temple_ was framed and executed for the murders of the woman he loved and his best friend; _The Fairest Faunus_ skinned her coat with a magic knife to appeal to a human prince, but died of heartbreak and blood loss when he didn't reciprocate her feelings…and the four maidens were deceived into accepting a burden they were never told about."

"Miss Belladonna—" Ozpin began.

"Let her finish," Jaune said.

Ozpin sighed, but didn't interject again. Blake continued:

"In the original, the old man wasn't just lonely: He had become a hermit after a long life, fraught with misfortune at his hands. Much of the trouble he caused had resulted from honest mistakes, and those acts that stemmed from selfishness or wrath were often counterbalanced by good deeds. He wasn't evil, he was just human. But he had lived for so long that his negative emotions attracted demons that tormented him at night, reminding him of all the wrongs he had committed over his life."

The room grew dead still at that last sentence. Blake let out a dry laugh.

"You're catching on. The part where the four maidens visited was more or less the same, but when he decided to share his powers with them he passed along his negative emotions as well, with the thought that they'd want to help him, and that their youth would give them the strength to weather the demons' torments. They absorbed his fears, his anger, his guilt, and his sorrow, without being told. The demons ceased tormenting him, and haunted the four sisters for the rest of their days. Their newfound power and their drive to help others kept them from being driven mad at night by their affliction, but every day was anguish for them.

"The story was originally about the consequences of accepting gifts from strangers, and the periodic difficulty of helping others. The sanitized version turned it into a bland creation myth with some vague moral of power coming to those who were selfless. I thought editing it like that was just propaganda and an attempt to cater to a wide audience."

Blake glared at Ozpin. "Now I suspect that wasn't quite the truth."

All eyes turned to Ozpin. Yang and Jaune glared like Blake. Ren, Nora, and Weiss all looked nervous. Even Qrow looked a little uncertain. Ruby kneaded her cape with her fingers, a nervous childlike gesture.

"The story got something wrong," Ruby said, her voice small. "Right professor?"

Ozpin stood silent for a long time. "The second transfer was one of the greatest moments of weakness in my life," said Ozpin. "It was never meant to be permanent, but I gave too much of my power to fix my mistake. The draw of my emotions gave the Maidens an easy way to lure the Grimm away from human settlements, but it condemned them to the same isolation and suffering that I had experienced for my entire life."

"Was that really a mistake?" Jaune asked. "It's easy to manipulate someone who feels isolated."

"That was never my intent. With the original four or Miss Nikos."

Jaune glared at Ozpin, tensed to fight. Then he shook his head and walked to the door.

"I'll look for an inn with room for eight," he said. "I'll call when I find one."

Jaune slammed the door behind him. Nora and Ren trailed after him. Ruby pulled the hood of her cloak up and drew the folds of the garment around her, shuffling back towards her room with Weiss at her side. Qrow took a step towards her, but Yang stopped him and shook her head before following her sister. Qrow slouched towards the door, disappearing into the night. Blake strode after the rest of Team RWBY with Sun. Just before they turned the corner, Ozpin spoke:

"There's one more thing the story got wrong, Miss Belladonna." Blake turned to look at Ozpin. While in control of Oscar, the boy's eyes had somehow reflected the Professor's age. Now his posture made his whole body appear frail, despite his youth. Blake felt a pang of sympathy for the man, and it stoked the hate in her gut even more.

"I parted with many painful emotions. But I never parted with my guilt."


	10. Writing Prompt Wednesday 12-26-17--drama

Emerald pressed her ear closer to the door. They'd been about to spring the trap. Emerald had spotted Qrow and was readying her Semblance when she'd felt a blow to the back of her head and passed out. She'd woken up in a windowless basement room, lit only by a naked bulb in the ceiling. Whoever had put her here had taken her weapons and tools, and left the room bare, save for a mostly flat pillow and a ratty sheet in one corner. The relief of not being dead had given way to gnawing anxiety as she'd realized that she couldn't escape, and that wherever this was, the masonry suggested it wasn't in Salem's palace. Which meant that this wasn't some abstract punishment Cinder had devised for failing so early in the plan. They'd all failed.

Cinder was strong. She had probably survived whatever trick Ruby's uncle had devised, even if she had been forced to retreat. But if they'd had enough force to drive off Cinder, they'd had enough force to hurt her. And Ruby had wounded Cinder before…

She pushed past the anxiety, and listened closer to the voices outside. She couldn't make out any of her captors' words, but she thought she recognized Qrow and Yang based on the tones of their voices. A third voice murmured, familiar, but hard to place.

"Hey!" Qrow shouted. "You've got too much baggage, let me do the talking. Upstairs, now." Emerald heard Yang grumble and stomp up a distant set of stairs. Footsteps approached the door and Emerald shrank back from the door, wracking her brain for the best use of her Semblance. Nothing Qrow feared would be hiding in the room, he'd left nothing that could allow a plausible fake suicide, and there was no place to hide. So Emerald retreated back to her bedding and shrank back against the wall.

Qrow unlocked the door and closed it behind him. Emerald glared at him wordlessly. Qrow grunted and moved forward, never breaking eye contact. As he moved forward, Emerald padded around Qrow on bare feet, maintaining the illusion that she was still huddled in the corner. Her nerves screamed at her to bolt, but she forced herself to walk to keep from making any sound.

"You gonna say anything, kid?" The illusion stared up at Qrow, showing far more nerve than Emerald felt capable of displaying in that moment. He went to snatch her wrist.

"If you're not gonna talk, then—dammit!"

Emerald bolted for the door. She conjured another illusion of herself on the opposite side of the room, but Qrow moved straight for the door. Emerald stumbled two yards from the door, landing on her hands and knees. Qrow lunged at the sound, but went sliding past her. Her palms scraped and throbbing from the fall, Emerald climbed to her feet, threw open the door, and slammed it behind herself, locking Qrow in. He'd break down the door with his sword, but it would take him at least half a minute to hack through the thick wood.

Emerald scanned the larger basement room and saw her weapons lying on a shelf. A window large enough to climb through sat high in the opposite wall. She threw on her gun belt and pistols, spun to face the window—and found the Raven blocking her path, sword drawn, wearing her helmet.

Emerald smirked as she conjured a half-dozen illusions of herself. She didn't need to make eye contact to use her Semblance, she only needed to see her victim. Raven edged towards the side with more illusions, offering Emerald a clear shot at the window. Her smirk became a grin, slipping by as easily as she'd passed by Qrow while Raven cautiously swept her sword around her like a blind woman with a stick. Emerald drew even with Raven, then crept past her.

Then Raven flipped her sword into a reverse grip and rushed at Emerald. Emerald and two of her illusions raised a kama, but Raven shouldered through the fake weapons and ducked under the real one to slam the pommel of her sword into Emerald's stomach. Emerald doubled over, gasping, and her illusions blinked out.

Raven removed her mask. Her eyes were closed. Emerald tried to stagger away, but Raven followed her breathing and grabbed her around the waist, making her wheeze. She dragged her towards the door Emerald had just come through.

"Qrow, don't break the door!" Raven said. "I'd like to have a chat with our friend.

…

While Emerald regained her breath atop her bedding, Raven placed a pair of cushions and a tea set next to her. Then she waited, patiently cleaning her helmet with a cloth. When Emerald managed to climb to a sitting position, she conjured an image of herself holding a knife to Vernal's throat. Raven frowned at Emerald.

"You know, my brother insisted on keeping you blindfolded so you couldn't find a target, and bound so you couldn't remove it," Raven said, rubbing furiously at a spot on her faceplate. She set her helmet down and turned her attention to Emerald. "Much as I enjoyed teasing him for that, I'm beginning to think he might have a point."

Emerald scowled, then let the illusion disappear. Raven gave her a satisfied look.

"So she can be reasoned with."

"Where's Cinder?" Emerald asked.

"No 'What do you want?'; no 'Why am I here?'. Your first question is where did your manipulative boss go? I wish I was surprised."

"She's *not* manipulative," Emerald said, gritting her teeth.

Raven pursed her lips and looked up, contemplating Emerald's words. "Okay," Raven said, looking back at Emerald. "Let's say I didn't see how you looked at her in my camp, like she was your biggest hero. Why do you work with her? It's not money, I saw all the Lien cards you've stolen among your possessions. You don't hesitate to hurt people if necessary, but you lack the bloodlust I've seen in thugs and murderers—you're not looking for an excuse for violence. There are much safer and less questionable ways to fulfill a thrillseeker's urge. So I think you're repaying a debt. If it were the result of bad choices or coercion you wouldn't be so quick to defend her, so it's personal. Maybe she showed you kindness, maybe you think you could deepen your bond beyond master and disciple. But you do *feel* you owe her."

Emerald swelled with pride. "Cinder saved my life," she said. "She taught me how to survive."

"Don't say that," Raven groaned, rolling her eyes. "She picked you up when you were just old enough to demonstrate that you were useful. You were what, fifteen, sixteen? Do you mean to tell me that you made it to that age by sheer dumb luck? You can teach a person to hunt, spar, forage, build a shelter, practice first aid, steal, and kill. You can teach survival skills, but you can't teach a person to * _be_ *a survivor. Those skills make you better, but you wouldn't have lived long enough to meet Cinder if you hadn't possessed the right mindset. If anything, she made you weaker by nurturing this dependence on her."

"She protected me."

"Of course she did. She did it for the same reason I oil and sharpen my sword: because it's useful to me. Cinder was just taking care of a helpful tool—one that's less useful now that your enemies know what you're able to do."

"That's not true!"

Raven's eyebrows shot up in mock-surprise. "Oh my! So this is all part of some cunning plan on her part? You'll just break through that door behind us when we don't expect it and tell Cinder where we are? No, it's a long con where you pretend to reform and stab us in the back down the road."

Raven scoffed and sipped at her tea. "Cinder would try it…*if it ever occurred to her*. She's too passionate, too single-minded to build contingencies into her plans if they fail. Face it: Unless she meant to fail to ambush my brother—in which case this is the most pathetic, transparent ruse I've ever witnessed—she got scared when Qrow's niece blinked at her, and decided discarding you was preferable to risking her other eye like the coward she is."

Emerald lunged at Raven, snarling. Raven leaned back with the attack and grabbed her wrists. She rolled Emerald onto her back so she knelt atop her, and pinned her wrists to the floor.

"Let me go!" Emerald shouted.

"Not until you realize you've picked the wrong side!" said Raven. "I * _really*_ don't like Oz, but at least he won't try to hunt me down and murder me in my sleep. If I stoop to helping him, I can walk away when things get out of hand. If I side with Salem, my tribe dies one way or another. Help me help my brother, and afterwards we can go where none of them will ever find us."

Emerald leered at Raven. "So I get to be your tool instead? Just like the Spring Maiden?"

Raven slapped Emerald, whipping her head to the side. Emerald cried out and curled into a ball, clutching her cheek. Raven stood her shoulders heaving.

"I would never stoop to using someone like any of the egomaniacs in this war," Raven said. She stood, clutching her wrist like she was restraining her hand from striking. Then she produced a small package and tossed it next to Emerald.

"Eat," she said, as she walked towards the door. "We have a lot to talk about later."

…

Emerald had waited until she was certain no one would enter the room, then scarfed down the contents of the package, dried meat and a thick heel of bread. She sat in the corner, pulled her knees to her chest, and drew the sheet around her.

Cinder would come for her. They'd fought alongside side one another. They'd kept each other alive by splitting a sleeping bag when they'd been caught in a blizzard. Emerald had nursed her back to health after the events at Beacon. She cared for Cinder. Cinder didn't always show it well, but she cared for Emerald. Chaos had unfolded after she'd been knocked out. Cinder's attention had been drawn elsewhere, and she'd only realized Emerald was missing long after they'd retreated. The things Raven said were lies to plant the seed of doubt. It wasn't the first time someone had tried to divide them like this.

Emerald gripped the sheet tighter and buried her face in her knees. She sat like that for a long time, listening to voices drift down from overhead and hearing the floorboards creak. After what felt like hours, she heard a low droning sound. Red light filled the room. Emerald looked up to see Raven stumble out of an oval of red light in the center of the room, holding a bottle of something. The light vanished and Emerald saw she looked…tired. She swayed on her feet, and her face looked haggard. She smirked at Emerald.

"I still can't believe that works," she said.

"What do you want?" Emerald asked. She scrunched up her nose. Raven smelled like her brother.

"I told you already," said Raven, sitting on one of the cushions. "Help me, by letting me help you."

"You're acting awfully nice for a ruthless bandit."

"You're a survivor like me. Being that woman's lap dog is not what a survivor would do."

"A survivor wouldn't believe empty platitudes either."

Raven smiled, satisfied. "A girl with your mind is wasted on her."

Raven drew a small oblong flute from around her neck. She placed it to her lips and played a short tune. It was barely a minute long, and so simple a child could play it.

But Emerald made a choking sound when the song hit her ears. A bittersweet ache welled in her chest. A vision flashed in her head. A sun-dappled field. Tiny arms wrapped around a tall man's neck. A safe warm space on the grass nestled between two larger people. A memory so old she'd forgotten if it had ever been real. She clutched her chest as if she'd been stabbed.

"What did you do?" Emerald asked.

A rueful look crossed Raven's face. "I still can't believe it. He loved playing that song for you."

Raven pressed her hands to her thighs and took a deep breath.

"I have a daughter," Raven said, her voice tight like she'd been crying. "I abandoned her when she was very young. I wanted to return to my tribe, but I was afraid that they'd reject her as weak when they saw how I'd raised her. I was afraid they'd reject me as weak for bearing the child of an outsider. I didn't think I'd love another man after that. But I met one shortly after my return. I'll admit, he was a rebound at first, but in time we grew close. Then we had my second child. I thought to myself; 'I can be a proper mother for this one. I can raise her in a way that will help her survive this harsh world.' And for a time, we were happy. But three years later she and her father died in a Grimm attack."

Emerald was breathing hard now, paralyzed by conflicting emotions. Raven swallowed a lump in her throat and continued:

"I wasn't sure at first. Your face was so similar to his, and the beads on your wrist were like the ones around her neck. I thought it had to be a coincidence. But you never left my mind since that meeting in our camp. And when my brother and I were planning our counterattack against your master, I noticed my Semblance was able to create a new portal. But it wasn't new: it had just been closed because I thought the person it connected to died years ago. Seeing you opened it up again."

"This is a trick," Emerald said, but her voice cracked as she spoke. She felt tears stream down her face.

Raven's eyes glistened as she met Emerald's. She pulled Emerald into an embrace. "Everyone upstairs wants to know what you can tell us about Salem. But before that…Emerald, is there anything you'd like to know about your father?"


	11. Cunning Challenge 01-2018

This prompt was given to me by Sh1f7er during the Monthly Cunning Challenge on /r/rwbyprompts: _After a daring escape from the insides of a Nevermore, Roman decides that a vacation to Mistral is exactly what he needs to start fresh._

* * *

In the end, being swallowed by a Nevermore had been a net positive for Roman. Sure, the vultures had picked over his apartment and his Dust cache, stealing everything but the clothes on his back and his cane, but in 'dying' he'd been freed. Vale authorities weren't looking for him, that psychopathic bombshell in the red dress would move on, and any debts he had were dissolved. As for the money and Dust, he could always steal more. With one notable exception, his brush with death had been the best thing to happen to him. With nothing holding him in Vale, he picked a few pockets and burgled a few warehouses until he had enough money and supplies to make it to Mistral.

Roman sipped his sake, watching the street from his outdoor table. Why hadn't he come to Mistral years ago? Sure, the competition was fiercer, but there were still plenty of marks walking the streets, even in the capital. Comradery among rogues wasn't as covert as it had been in Vale, but it wasn't an oxymoron either. So long as you didn't interfere with anyone's business, you could somewhat trust the other guy, and there was enough business in Mistral that criminal activity would only draw flak from _some_ of Roman's future competitors. But that would come later. He finished his drink, left a tip under his glass, then vaulted the waist-high fence and sauntered down the street.

He stretched and ran a hand through his hair, trimmed short with clippers. He needed to buy a new hat, his scalp felt chill without his bowler. He fished a cigar out of his vest, lit it, and puffed it as he rounded a corner into the market. The new haircut and outfit might not have been necessary, but better to part with a bit of vanity than to be discovered by an old ghost. This was a new kingdom, a new life, with new opportunities, new people to take advantage of—

And an old meddling kid in a red cloak. Roman ducked into a produce stall and pretended to inspect a yellow squash. Surely it hadn't been the same Beacon huntress. He peered out of the stall to see that yes, it was her. She was moving towards him with three people Roman didn't recognize, a blond, a dark-haired boy, and a ginger-haired girl. Roman ran his finger over his cane's trigger, ready to flip its muzzle up towards the group. Then he took a breath and leaned on the cane instead. She _saw_ the Nevermore swallow him. This was a coincidence. A cruel, absurd coincidence, but a coincidence all the same.

The group was heading towards the stall he stood in. He scrambled under a display of berries into the alley behind the market stalls and strode the way the four of them had come. Better to swallow pride and preserve his new life than to bring back the old one out of unchecked pride. He made his way to the lower levels of the city. A somewhat friendly card game seemed in order.

…

Roman hunched low in his booth. The gods were real and they were laughing at him. After his close-call with Little Red and her friends yesterday, he'd decided to spend his time at a bar across the street from his hotel. Not even thirty minutes later, the blonde who had trashed his mech back in Vale entered with a tall, grizzled-looking huntsman. Seriously, when did capes become a thing? Roman hid his face behind a menu as the two of them sat at a table in the middle of the room. There was no back way to sneak out, so he'd just have to wait for them to leave.

He ordered a double of whiskey and sat in agonizing silence as the two talked, bickered, and talked again in an endless loop, the man drinking more all the while. Roman eavesdropped, but all he could gather from across the room was that the man was both the blonde's uncle and Little Red's, and that the Uncle was somewhat of a mixed bag to the blonde. Eventually, the blonde shook her head and excused herself to go to the washroom. The huntsman finished his fourth drink, then slumped back in his chair, eyes closed. Roman seized his chance and started for the door as quickly as he could.

As Roman passed by the huntsman, his hand shot out and grabbed Roman's wrist. He glared at Roman, still drunk, but somehow very lucid.

"Hey pal," he said. His voice was a growling slur. "Do I know you? Why were you watching us?"

Years of bluffing kept panic from showing on Roman's face. He could fight well enough to escape, but things had been going so well. There had to be a way out of this that deflected suspicion, but how could he trick a paranoid huntsman who was still sharp enough to detect him with half a pint of whisky in him?

Oh, how obvious.

"I was worried about you sir," Roman said, replacing his usual smug musical tone with a formal one. He reached inside his vest, wrote down a scroll number and a name on a bar napkin, and handed it to the huntsman.

"I'm a member of Mistral Alcoholics Anonymous. Whenever you feel comfortable attending, we would be happy to—"

"I think you need to leave now."

"As you wish!" Roman shuffled out, feigning only a bit more nervousness than he felt. As soon as he was out of sight he bolted, taking a zig-zagging path through the alleys in that district.

Qrow grumbled after he left, tossing the napkin towards a waste bin. Then he frowned at the glassware spread in front of him, contemplating. He didn't look up until he heard boots clacking on the floor. Yang took her seat just as the waitress returned to the table.

"Can I get you two anything else?" she asked.

"One more round," Qrow said.

" _Qrow_ ," Yang said, glaring at him.

"Don't get your hair in a knot, Yang." He turned to the waitress. "Get my niece whatever she wants, and get me a big pitcher of water—actually, make that two."

…

Roman pressed his face into his hands. It had been the perfect plan. Classes wouldn't resume at Haven for a couple weeks. He'd gathered food, water, and cigars, slipped onto campus and broken into an unoccupied dorm room. He would have had time to catch his breath, plan, and wait for the damn Vale kids and their uncle to leave. And now there were filthy Faunus starting a war with filthier White Fang who wanted to blow the place up.

He burst onto the rooftop, a rucksack with the essentials thrown over his shoulder. He wouldn't be able to leave the school grounds from here, but he could swing down to the ground with the grapping hook feature of his cane. He just needed to find a safe place to—

The grounds and buildings were littered with firebombs and explosive charges, all of them blinking like ominous holiday lights. If he moved fast, they wouldn't be an issue, but the Headcase in Chief was the one with the detonator. If he decided he'd try his luck with the blast, that would be it for Roman. He looked out into the crowd fighting in the courtyard. The tiresome sociopath was waving the detonator around in one hand, his sword in the other.

Roman ground his teeth. This felt suspiciously like the sort of altruism that got people killed. Roman moved towards the roof's edge and lay prone. He extended Melodic Cudgel over the edge, resting its barrel on his forearm. He flicked the reticle up and adjusted his aim. His Aura would be up to defend against the forces approaching him, but Aura didn't protect everything.

Roman fired. The shot shattered the detonator. Adam roared in anger and went to slice the nearest opposing Faunus in half, but two figures made from golden light ensnared his arm, arresting the blow, while a girl yanked the sword from his hand with a steel whip. Disarmed, Adam broke free and began to retreat along with his men. Half of the other Faunus chased after them while the other half spread out and began disarming the charges that Adam's men had set.

Roman took the opportunity to swing down to the ground and make a beeline for the fence. He'd almost made it to the West gate when he heard something move at him from above. He spun to block a sword blow and came face to face with Blake.

"Oh, hey!" Roman said, trying to press Blake back. "Fancy meeting you here."

"How did you survive?" Blake asked, pressing her blade closer.

"Charm, and six inches of Vacuo steel."

"What are you doing here?"

"I was trying to get a good night's sleep, and then someone let the dogs out—and a lot of other animals by the look of it."

Blake growled and shoved against Roman, pushing him a step back. "Why do you keep helping these people?" she asked.

"Since when is keeping this place from becoming a crater helping them? I don't care what happens to Haven, but these people almost got me killed once, and I really didn't want to give them a second shot. Why else would I come to Mistral? If I'd known you were here, I'd have flown off for greener pastures somewhere else. I just want a simpler life now, where I pick pockets and rig dice games. I've had it with big player stuff."

Roman nodded back towards the center of the school grounds. "I know you won't pretend you didn't see me, but you owe me for preventing Haven from becoming a pile of smoking debris. Give me a head start, and you'll never see me again. Even if you think I'm lying, you have bigger priorities right now. There's a lot of semi-active ordinance around the school, and if Adam's here, I'm guessing that bitch with the god complex can't be far behind. Go help your friends."

Blake glared at Roman, pressing his cane back towards his collar. Then Roman stumbled forward as a clone gave way like a rag doll. He watched Blake charge back towards the fray until he was satisfied it wasn't a trick, then he turned and climbed the fence out of Haven.

…

Vacuo would be a long journey, but he could afford the train to a port, and the ship across the ocean. People would be harder to pickpocket there, and the population's reputation was more that of general rogues and mercenaries than outright criminals, but the ethos of belonging if you could survive? That, Roman could get behind.

He passed a small café in the train station in search of a bar. With no success, he shrugged and stopped under an arch to light his cigar. A rapid patter of footsteps came from his left. Roman moved to block the attack, but he was too slow to stop the tackle that brought him to the ground. He struggled to a sitting position and tried to pry the arms from around his neck, but their owner just buried her face in the crook of his neck.

A girl dressed in overalls and boots, her sandy blond hair in a messy bun, looked up at him. As she blinked tears from her eyes, they shifted from sky blue to pink and brown, then changed back. She gave a rasping breath that almost sounded like a quiet "Missed you."

Roman felt himself smile. "Missed you too, kiddo."


	12. WPW Free For All January 2018

Prompt: Shortly after Sienna Khan's death becomes public, a character discovers they have an unlikely connection to the former White Fang high leader.  
Written for Writing Prompt Wednesday's biannual Free-For-All thread.

* * *

Velvet clenched her jaw to keep from grumbling as she scrubbed at her ears. The resurgence in Faunus discrimination in Vale might have been a predictable result of the attack on Beacon, but that didn't make the slurs and thrown objects any more tolerable. Granted, the syrupy confection she'd been hit with smelled far better than other things she'd had thrown at her the past few weeks, but everything else had been far easier to remove from her hair and the downy fur on her ears.

 _Cowards_ , she thought. _Shove me, slap me, kick me to the ground if you really hate me. Give me a reason._

Guilt followed that thought like it always did. "Violence is for Grimm," her father would say after a particularly harsh encounter with humans. "They are incapable of reason. Humans are, and the cruel ones will twist events to suit their wants. Even if you were justified in defending yourself, they will often find a way to turn humans who trust the Faunus against you. Don't give them the chance: in demeaning you, they demean themselves and show people their true nature. Be the better person."

Then Velvet would protest that it wasn't fair. Her father would agree, then follow up by saying that life wasn't fair. Yatsuhashi said the same thing. Despite her teammate's genuine support she'd scowl and ball her fists in resentment when he said it. Even if he had been a Faunus, few would think to torment someone of his size. And even though the headmaster had always sided with her, most students at Signal had treated her like a rabid beast when she'd dared stand up to anyone who had pulled an ear. So she tried to adhere to her father's way, even though most people turned a blind eye to her torment at best. She shut off the water, dried herself, and pulled on a loose sweater and a pair of jeans.

"Velvet!" her mother called from downstairs. "We have a visitor."

"I'll be down in a minute, mum," Velvet said, patting her hair with a towel.

"He hasn't all day Button, come down now!"

Velvet grumbled at the use of her mother's pet name for her. It had taken years of familial bickering for her to finally stop using it. Even then, she'd still address Velvet that way when she was upset—or nervous.

Velvet's ears twitched. She couldn't hear anything from downstairs. She set the towel down, slipped a pocket knife into her jeans, and slung her camera case at her hip.

She descended the stairs, feigning nonchalance, then froze at the bottom. Her mother was standing behind the couch nearest the stairs, her eyes fixed on the man sitting on the couch opposite her, near the front door. He rose as Velvet appeared, his face unreadable. The man was at least as tall as Yatsuhashi, and just a bit more muscular. Save for the tribal tattoos on his left arm and the scars covering his arms and face, he could have easily passed for a slightly older version of her teammate. Except Yatsuhashi had merely been imposing. This man was terrifying.

Velvet stepped in front of her mother. The corner of the man's mouth turned up.

"That's one way you're like your father, if his reputation is accurate," the man said.

Velvet heard the side door open, followed by the sound of someone wiping their feet on the doormat. A moment later, Basil Scarlatina entered the room carrying a trowel, his rabbit feet making a muffled cadence on the wood floor. When he saw the man, he stopped as Velvet had, then he squared his shoulders and adjusted his grip on his trowel. His hand shook in sharp contrast to the hard look he gave the man.

The man tilted his head at Basil. "Do you know who I am?" the man asked.

"Yes," Basil said. "I heard stories after I left."

"Then you know that if I intended violence, it would have happened. I'm here to talk."

"I don't care. Leave now."

"Sienna Khan is dead, Basil."

Pain crossed Basil's face. He didn't change his stance, but much of the tension ebbed from him. "How?" he asked.

"Assassinated at her estate in Mistral. It appeared to be a human huntsman."

Basil swallowed and bowed his head. "To a better day," he said. "Thank you for notifying me. If you could please let me grieve…"

The tall man nodded. "Of course. Please step outside with your wife."

"Excuse me?" Basil glared at the tall man. "You dare to come into my house and issue commands?"

"I do. I came here for two reasons. The second was to speak with your daughter—alone."

Velvet suppressed a shiver and rested her hand on her camera case. The man's eyes flicked to her hand, then back to Basil.

"When I said 'speak', I meant speak," he said. "Sienna's last wishes stated that no one else is to participate in this conversation. Basil, I heard what your daughter did at Beacon. Between her ability, and the immunity that Sienna's favor has given you over the years, you can rest safe in the knowledge that I will not _initiate_ conflict. Now please leave. My respect for Sienna is the only reason I am conducting myself with such civility."

"It's alright, dad," Velvet said before Basil could reply. "Why don't you and mum get some fresh air?"

Basil frowned. Then he moved to join his wife and led her out of the house, keeping himself between her and the visitor. The man sat back down, his weight flattening the cushions and making the couch's frame creak. Velvet sat on the couch opposite him.

 _Just ask 'What Would Coco Do?'_ she thought to herself. She straightened up, assuming a solid and composed posture. Velvet gave him a measured look.

"I don't suppose you have a name?" she asked.

"I took the name 'Scourge' when I joined the White Fang," the tall man said. "But that doesn't matter. After Sienna's death, we searched her quarters for any information the new high leader might find important. I found this among Sienna's effects:"

Scourge reached behind the couch. He produced a clasp envelope and a wooden box, both sealed with wax. The box was almost the length of Velvet's arm, about the width of a dinner plate, and as tall as the length of her hand. It was built from dark teak and carved with swirling floral patterns. Polished hinges and an ornate latch held the box together. Velvet raised an eyebrow.

"And this is?"

"I don't know," Scourge said. "It was accompanied by a letter stating that neither item was to be opened by anyone except the recipient: you."

Velvet quashed the surprised flinch the statement elicited, but she still visibly quivered a bit. She turned the envelope over in her hands giving it a guarded look.

"This has to be a mistake," she murmured.

Scourge leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "That's precisely what I thought—at first."

Velvet cocked an eyebrow at him.

Scourge made a dismissive sound. "I respect our new high leader. I've followed him in the past, and I will continue to follow him—despite the unusual circumstances surrounding Sienna's death. But his cunning, focus, and drive that make him so formidable also cripple him in a way. He focuses so intently on his goals that he loses perspective. He makes choices that only account for short-term gains. He makes cavalier strategic and tactical decisions."

Scourge's hand drifted to the scars defacing his tattoos. He leaned back onto the couch and looked past Velvet, lost in memory.

"Sienna though...Indomitable, fierce, proud—but intelligent as well. When she made decisions, she could remove herself from her passion. Ask herself if winning a given battle would leave the White Fang stronger, or weaken them over time. I don't mean to suggest that Adam Taurus would deliberately sabotage the White Fang. But successfully leading a movement like ours requires a certain perspective that he lacks."

Velvet shifted awkwardly in her seat, trying to craft a question that was assertive without being insulting.

"Could you elaborate?" she asked. "I'm not sure I grasp the point."

Scourge leaned forward again. " _The point,_ is that despite my loyalty to our new high leader, I will always respect the wishes of High Leader Khan. And while it's probable that what I've delivered is a mere parting gift for the family of an old friend, Sienna never made a decision that didn't contribute towards the future of our race, even if it involved someone dear to her."

Velvet shuffled her feet. "I'm just a junior huntress. I'm no one in the grand scheme of things."

"Maybe." Scourge grinned, revealing a set of canine fangs. "But I used to be no one too."

…

After Scourge left, Velvet brought the envelope and box up to her room. After a brief, relieved reunion with her parents, Velvet asked Basil how Scourge had known him, but Basil waved Velvet off with an ambiguous promise to explain later. Velvet frowned, but didn't press further. She returned upstairs and set the box on her bed. She sat in front of it, crossed her legs, and opened the envelope. Inside was a parchment letter, written in ornate looping script that communicated elegance and power:

 _Velvet,_ the letter read. _If you're reading this then I am dead. I regret that I am unable to speak with you in person, but life frequently denies us the proper course of action._

 _I humbly request that you keep what I share from your father. Like some other founding members of the White Fang, he and I disagreed on the best methods to achieve our goals over time. He may have had a fighter's spirit, but he wasn't a soldier—quite the opposite actually. I've heard he's lost some of his dexterity in recent years, but before he left his talent as a medic and surgeon saved my life on two occasions, and kept me out of a wheelchair on a third. He healed so many Faunus, kept so many of us healthy and capable, that I thought he'd never leave, even after he said he'd taken a wife. It made me so happy that someone who had done so much for us had found love._

 _But when I discovered that he had married a human, our relationship became strained. I am still very fond of your father, and I still hold him in great respect for all he's done, but I confess that I never quite forgave him for marrying your mother. We didn't speak for almost a year, and we might never have spoken again if you hadn't come along. Ghira Belladonna was still High Leader, but I was important enough that Basil felt it appropriate to come to me when he announced his decision to leave._

 _At first, I was furious. I accused him of losing his fighting spirit, of growing softer, of losing his way. But then he introduced me to you, swaddled in a blanket, your ears shading your eyes as you slept. Holding you in my arms was the last time I showed anyone vulnerability. I understood then that your father had never changed. He had always viewed Faunus and humans as equals under his care, he'd merely been surrounded by the former while I'd known him. And he hadn't lost his fighting spirit: He had merely chosen a smaller, more personal fight._

 _I gave him my blessing to depart and made two requests of him in turn: That he name me your godmother, and that he would allow me to invite you to join the White Fang when you were older and capable of making an informed, independent decision. He granted both requests—though he was reluctant to grant the second given my recent advocacy for more aggressive conduct. I had hoped to extend my offer personally after you completed your huntress training. While I view many of the values the academies espouse with skepticism, they are exceptionally capable of imparting skills the White Fang finds useful._

 _A few years passed after Basil left. Then Ghira departed the White Fang and I assumed the mantle of High Leader. One by one the rest of the old guard left or were killed by our enemies, until I was the only one left. It was lonely. From the day I joined the White Fang I never took a spouse, or even a lover. Our cause was my husband, our people were my family, and their children were my children. My departed friends and their offspring were never far from my mind. Ghira's daughter never impressed me. At first I was afraid she'd grow soft, like her father had. After she fell in with one of my lieutenants, it became apparent that she'd only be useful as a follower, not a leader; a keen blade, but not a swordsman._

 _But you may be different. I've heard you're a gentle soul like your father. But attending Beacon suggests that like Basil, you may be gentle, but you are not weak. Still, your father may have taught you the wrong lessons: That turning the other cheek is the better path, that striking back only invites worse torment._

 _If those sentiments turn your gut like rotten food, then I'd like to extend an invitation to join the White Fang. In the box, you'll find a letter granting you safe passage to our headquarters in Mistral, instructions for identifying someone in the capital or Wind Path to guide you to us, an item that will verify the authenticity of the letter, and a gift: Possessions from my early days as high leader when I lead the charge in combat instead of commanding from a throne. Even if you decline my invitation, I hope you will find my gift useful for combating the Creatures of Grimm. Should you accept my offer, understand that you will not receive special treatment beyond safe passage. Even if I were alive, I would not treat you any differently than a normal recruit—if anything, I would treat you worse to avoid accusations of favoritism, at least until you'd proven yourself._

 _But I believe you hold great potential. The temperance you and your father possess do not make you natural leaders, but some of the world's greatest leaders became great because circumstance thrust them into command. Your father was too old to shoulder such a burden, but there's still time to cultivate a leader's will in you, if you can make the proper sacrifices. You may be just what the latest generation needs. One of the hard lessons I've learned over the years is that although it is harder to stoke a small flame than to tend a roaring blaze, the blaze easily consumes everything it touches, while the small flame grows in a manner that warms and guides those that gather around it, without burning and blinding them._

 _I hope you never read this, because that would mean I survived to have this conversation with you in person, or that we won the luxury of talking about something far more tranquil and ordinary._

 _To a better day,_

 _Sienna Khan_

Velvet sat back from the letter, processing what she'd read. The idea of joining the White Fang was reckless. Maybe if they hadn't become so radical in recent years the idea wouldn't have seemed so cavalier. And yet…

Her hand drifted to her ear, the fur there still slightly matted from the food thrown at her. She smoothed her hair, feeling a lump from where she had been struck by something harder a few days ago. She'd wanted to become a huntress to show humans she was willing to protect all life that walked Remnant, not just other Faunus. She'd wanted to show the world that most Faunus didn't view their rights as a zero-sum struggle with the humans.

Vale had done their best to manage the renewed racial tension, but Mistral had lapsed into their usual neutral declarations and tacit consent. The failure of Atlas' mechanized units at Beacon had diverted some of the blame from the Faunus in the North, and to their credit the military had maintained their usual Faunus relations in the major cities. But rumors from Faunus entering Vale's ports spoke of conflict in Atlas' remote settlements and around military bases far enough from the capital to escape central command's immediate attention. The Faunus Velvet had met said that Jacques Schnee was focused on lifting the Dust embargo, but evidence suggested that other powerful families were helping obscure the conflict from Ironwood.

Power… everywhere it collected peace soured, no matter which species held it. Velvet pushed the thoughts aside and undid the latch on the box. Lifting the lid, she found a small amulet shaped like a three-dimensional version of the White Fang crest resting atop a folded cloth; the item Sienna paired with the letter. Velvet placed it in the lid and drew back the folds of the cloth. Light reflected off the metal within, glimmering on Velvet's face.

…

 _Two Days Later_

"How are you parents?" Velvet asked. She sat on her bed, leaning back against the wall. Coco sat across from her, reclining in Velvet's desk chair. She had finally returned from Mistral and had brought Mistralian coffee with her. Coco took a sip from her cup.

"They're fine," Coco said. "They just worry. I was supposed to go back for a week to help clear some brush and patch the fence, and I let them guilt me into staying for almost a month helping them with every little thing they could think of. I'm eager to get back into action though. Yatsu says Fox is going stir-crazy patrolling around the city walls. They both found some promising search and destroy leads for the team once we've got our affairs in order. How's the sabbatical been treating you anyway?"

"It's fine. My parents worry, just like yours."

"Things haven't been too rough? I've heard parts of Vale are less friendly than usual."

"It's nothing I haven't dealt with before," Velvet said, looking away.

" _Velvet_ ," Coco said, narrowing her eyes. "You're withdrawing again. What aren't you telling me?"

Velvet didn't reply at first. She licked her lips and sighed. "I had a visitor."

"You don't look too bad," Coco said. "How bad did you mess him up?"

"It wasn't like that! It"—she stopped and pulled the box from under her bed. She retrieved the letter and handed it to Coco—"Just read this."

Coco took the letter. Her eyebrows steadily rose as she read it. Her eyes bulged in surprise as she neared the end. She handed the letter back to Velvet and drank from her cup as she stared out the window, gathering her thoughts. After a long silence she looked back to Velvet.

"So what are you going to do?" she asked.

"I don't know," Velvet said. "You guys have been great, and there were plenty of decent people at Beacon, even if some of them weren't as supportive as they could have been. But things have regressing lately. I'm not sure my usual approach is going to work anymore—assuming it would have worked to begin with."

Coco leaned forward and met Velvet's eyes. "I don't pretend to get it," Coco said. "Not entirely. But I can sympathize. My stepmom and little brother didn't have the greatest time when they visited Kuchinashi recently. If you think that joining up is the right thing to do I'll support you, even if I don't agree."

Velvet shook her head. "That's not right either. The White Fang attacks humans categorically. They don't focus on the ones causing all the conflict, and they focus so much on injustice stemming from our differences they don't see the awful things humans do to their own kind. Both sides miss the root cause."

Velvet looked down into her cup. "Coco," she said. "How do you feel about Atlas?"

Coco shrugged. "Ironwood seems okay, but the people up top are like Mistral without the poise. And you know I have complicated opinions about Mistral."

"They're not so complicated if you take the caste structure into account. Am I wrong?"

"They're still not black and white, but they are _less_ nuanced."

"But you could probably name a few people, couldn't you?"

Coco swept her bangs back from her forehead and rubbed the back of her neck. She blew out a tense breath.

"What you're suggesting carries the death penalty in every kingdom if you get caught."

"You're assuming I mean to assassinate someone," said Velvet.

"If you're not, then it only carries the death penalty in Atlas. Mistral will throw you in a dungeon far from the prying eyes of anyone concerned about prisoner welfare for the rest of your life. Even if _someone_ staged a successful coup, if they didn't replace the old structures with adequate new ones they would doom an entire kingdom to a civil war that will end when the Grimm descend on the survivors. And even then, who's to say that things don't regress, or that the Faunus simply become what humans were before the Great War."

"The entire point is that I'll be careful, that I won't rush things. The White Fang is a butcher with a battle-axe. What I'm suggesting is a surgeon with a scalpel."

"Velvet, you don't know how to wield that kind of power. That is an activity where someone Glynda's age is considered young."

Velvet shrugged. "I'll find someone to help me then. To teach me, and to guide me until I can do this on my own. This is going to take years, decades. I'll have time to learn from a mentor."

Coco rubbed her temple. "You know I think I've got a combat knife in my bag if you want me to stab you in the back. It'll be a lot quicker than having some political manipulator do it for you once he no longer needs you."

"I was actually hoping you'd watch my back."

Coco looked up at Velvet.

"The Grimm and the robots at Beacon didn't care what species we were," Velvet said. "You've told me all about the ways Mistral has shafted your family. Wouldn't it be nice to knock those people in the high tower down? To make them respect the Adels who've been disowned—the ones that actually understand hard work and sacrifice—instead of the ones with the power? There are plenty of huntsmen in Vale capable of killing Grimm. Let's use our abilities for a cause that needs a fresh approach."

Coco stared at Velvet a moment before she sighed and leaned back in her chair. "I'll back out if the plan isn't thorough enough for me prior to including anyone we don't know or trust. We'll also need to make sure Fox and Yatsuhashi are on board. They'll say yes, even if Yatsu doesn't like it, but it's polite to ask your friends before involving them in treason. That said, I would enjoy seeing some of the Mistral nobility in a different line of work. Or in prison."

Coco smirked. "Of course, even if we don't lead with violence like the White Fang, people are going to want us dead. We're going to need to be ready for that. Extra sparring is going to be the new normal for a while."

Velvet smiled. "Good."

Velvet opened the box. Inside were a pair of katars. The blades were shaped like arrowheads, as wide as her hand at the base, and a little longer than a foot. Armor extended down the grip, protecting the outside of the wielder's arm from the back of the hand to a few inches above the elbow. The entire weapon was decorated with gold, save for the dark gray steel of the blade itself. As Velvet slipped them on, Coco saw a Dust crystal the size of a large egg mounted above the back of each hand, red on the right katar, green on the left.

Velvet flexed, squeezing the grips within, and a pair of blades swung out from either side of the primary blades. Coco heard two clicks, then flame engulfed the right blades, while a small gust wreathed the left ones. She watched the Dust effects swirl around the weapons for a moment. Then the blades retracted and the Dust effects faded. Velvet flashed her a bold look.

"Grab your gun and let's head out back," she said. "I've been dying to test these out."


	13. Writing Prompt Wednesday 2-6-18

This one is three mini-fics: The prompt is from Writing Prompt Wednesday #69, 2/7: While the Vytal festival is going on, the characters go online to see how they are viewed by the watchers of Remnant.

* * *

 **Losers and Winners**

 **ABRN**

"…while Team RWBY coasted by on natural talent and sporadic teamwork, Team ABRN of Haven Academy never attempted to organize themselves, engaging in 1v1 duels throughout the entire match. Despite Arslan Altan's stunning show of martial skill, a fundamental lack of cohesion doomed ABRN to lose to a team that displayed only rudimentary coordination."

Nadir lowered his scroll. "That was the most eloquent 'you suck' article I've ever read."

"Think she'll want it?" Reese asked.

Nadir sighed and added the article to the shared folder hosted on Arslan's scroll. After ABRN had been cleared to leave the colosseum infirmary, they returned to their room, where Arslan had ordered them to find every post-match article they could on the CCT to dissect their performance and learn from their mistakes. Then she'd left the room to meditate on the roof, leaving the rest of ABRN to gather data.

As Nadir pulled up the next article he'd queued, Reese moped as she thumbed through a photo gallery of the fight, which contained several edited shots mocking her slip on the ice and her sudden ejection from the arena. Bolin slouched in his chair, scowling at every article he came across. Then he sat up and blinked, his scowl disappearing. He started mouthing the words as he read. Then he doubled over laughing. Reese cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Someone's really stroking your ego," she said.

"Oh hell no," Bolin said. "This guy's an asshole, but he's just that funny."

Reese peeked at Bolin's scroll. "Drew Mossberg, huh? He wrote some good pre-tournament articles but his gimmick got boring three years ago. Not a fan."

"You sure about that?" Bolin cleared his throat and began reading aloud:

"Which brings me to the ladies of Team ABRN: Reese Chloris is the kind of young woman that my wife and I would oppose our son dating. She's impulsive, obnoxious, and dresses like the sort of tool who would say 'hella', 'gnarly', and 'dawg' in the same sentence unironically. But since the majority of her peers in the Vytal tournament possess similar or worse attitudes and fashion sense, I can't hold it against her. What she does have going for her is a surprising amount of mobility and speed, and loads of tenacity. Going into this fight, I expected Blake Belladonna to be the dominant competitor: As one of the few students admitted to Beacon without any combat school experience, and as the only Beacon student who actually carries herself like a future huntress, she seemed like the most dangerous member of Team RWBY. But despite her professional attitude and competent performance, she actually struggled against Chloris during their match. Although Belladonna's cooler head prevailed, I can't deny that Chloris couldn't have lasted that long against her on sheer luck alone. I'm placing her at the top of the rankings for Haven, despite her questionable fashion choices.

"Why didn't I give that honor to Arslan Altan?" Bolin continued, his words punctuated by bursts of giggles. "She's one of Haven's most capable fighters, possessing phenomenal Aura control and tremendous physical abilities. But when a team is as disorganized as ABRN was during this match, you have to blame leadership. When she wasn't busy fighting Team RWBY's Xiao Long to satisfy her warrior's ego, she was running around intervening for her teammates like a single mother corralling a set of five-year-old triplets high on candy bars and juice boxes. This chaos led to the remaining three members of ABRN getting KO'd by the most overcomplicated, high-risk finishing attack the Vytal Tournament has seen since Qrow Branwen's infamous Stone Home Run. I would advise Miss Altan to stick to search and destroy missions when she graduates Haven, because if her leadership skills are any indication, she couldn't run a daycare center, let alone any mission that involves working with humans or Faunus."

The door slammed open. There was a 'fwoomp' sound, like a gas stove igniting and the room suddenly became hot enough to cause them to sweat. Bolin turned to see Arslan stride through the door, her fists wreathed in flaming Aura. The three of them flinched away from Arslan, her face etched with fury.

"You two," she said, pointing to Nadir and Bolin. "Sparring grounds, now. You idiots _will not_ embarrass me again."

Arslan turned to Reese and smiled with uncharacteristic sweetness, making Reese shrink back.

"Sounds like you've got a following now. We'd better make sure you maintain that impressive speed of yours if you don't want to lose your new fans. I want you to run laps."

"Around what?" Reese asked.

Arslan's rope dart lashed out, the point sinking into the back of Reese's chair as it zipped by her ear. She yelped and tumbled out of the chair.

"Around the entire goddamn kingdom!"

Reese bolted down the hall and Arslan chased her, the dart nipping at her heels.

* * *

 **CFVY**

"I'm back!" Velvet said. "I would have been back sooner if there weren't so many tourists."

Velvet bustled back into their floor's common room holding a cardboard box and a loaded cup carrier. Fox swooped in, his nostrils flared, and plucked the box from Velvet, picking out two donuts and a muffin.

"Fox!" Velvet snapped.

"What?" he said around a mouthful of pastry. "Yatsuhashi is going to politely decline as always, and I didn't touch what you got for you and Coco."

Velvet's face fell. "Still bad huh?"

Fox nodded. "It sounded like she had a flashback before she woke up—and a tantrum after. Wouldn't even let us in the room."

Velvet bit her lip. She set down her acquisitions and carried two of the cups with her to their room. She knocked on the door.

"Go away," Coco said. She didn't sound angry, just tired and hoarse.

"Coco, it's me."

"Bull! You're not Velvet."

Velvet glanced up and down the hall, ensuring it was empty before trying again: "When you were a little girl, you slept with a deer Faunus doll named 'Princess Thistle'."

There was a pause, then Coco opened the door and ushered Velvet inside. "Goddamn painkillers," she muttered, shuffling back towards her bed, shrouded in her blanket.

Velvet stared in shock at Coco. She wasn't surprised Coco had shattered her chair into kindling, and was only mildly surprised she'd rammed one of the legs into her desk like a stake. What really surprised her was that Coco was wearing sweatpants and an old t-shirt. That almost concerned Velvet more than her friend's puffy red eyes.

"If you're not sleeping well, I have something that could help" Velvet said, hesitant.

Coco shook her head. "Nightmares weren't that bad."

Velvet eyed the chair leg embedded in the desk. Coco made an irritated sound and shook her head.

"That was from after I woke up. A bunch of jerks found my Remnagram."

"Oh?"

"Mostly it was a lot of shit-talking; 'I hope she makes sandwiches better than she fights', 'Let's hope this doesn't disqualify her from the swimsuit calendar'. Then a couple assholes DM'd me some really creepy art of me and that…" Her voice trailed off.

"That green-haired ho?" Velvet supplied.

Coco nodded, almost smiling at Velvet. "Normally I'd laugh it off, but I can't this time. I get angry a lot, but I never get like _this_."

"Well, we've never performed with so many eyes on us."

"That's not it!" Coco snapped, rustling her blanket. "It doesn't just bother me, it bothers me that it bothers me! I've killed lots of Grimm and won plenty of fights, and these losers would sprain something picking up a bucket of paint! Words should mean nothing to me." Her voice cracked on the last sentence.

Velvet placed the cups on the nightstand and sat next to Coco on her bed. "Coco, you're tough, but no one is invincible."

"But I'm better than this," Coco said.

"You had an off day. Even you're allowed to have those."

"But—"

"Hush."

Velvet wrapped an arm around Coco's shoulders and pulled her close. Coco slowly laid her head on Velvet's shoulder. Then she cried while her teammate rubbed her arm. When she calmed down, Velvet reached her free arm over to pick up a coffee and pressed it into Coco's hands. Coco drank from it like a nursing kitten. When she finished, she finally cracked a smile. Coco returned Velvet's embrace and laid her head back on Velvet's shoulder.

"How are you so awesome?" Coco asked.

"I have a first-class role model," Velvet said.

* * *

 **CMSN**

"I must be the most popular guy in the world right now," Mercury said, grinning at his scroll as he and the rest of his tournament team walked from the docks. They had made an early-morning trip into Vale to finalize arrangements for the next phase of their plan, and Cinder had made the mistake—in Emerald's opinion—of not giving Mercury enough to do. He had spent the entire trip looking through articles that inflated his ego even more by recounting his performance in the first two rounds.

"Thorne Alwadi and Drew Mossberg both like me as the tournament champion. Victor Vermillion thinks that guy from Mistral with the hat is going to win the whole thing, but he says I'm the most fun to watch, and he still put me in the top three."

"Maybe he'll get lucky and get one last show from you before we move forward," Cinder said, looking over her shoulder. "Don't forget, fulfilling that speculation is not part of the plan."

"Yeah yeah," Mercury said, waving a hand. "I won't go off-script. I'm just enjoying public agreement that I am in fact the biggest stud on Remnant."

"So when you say you're off training, you're actually getting nailed by a bunch of burly carpenters?" Emerald quipped. Neo tittered breathlessly.

"You joke, but I'm sure someone has imagined that by now."

"What do you mean?"

Mercury started typing something in a search bar. "So that one Haven team has a lot of fangirls, and a few fanguys, but we've got the opposite situation:"

Mercury leaned over as they walked to hand Emerald his scroll. Mercury had pulled up a gossip site instead of one of the usual sports networks. The headline read; 'CMSN: Combat Has Never Been This Sexy', in red and black font. Emerald scrunched her nose at the contents. The author described in detail their opinion, and the opinions of Remnant in general, of the physical attractiveness of each member of their team, including ample reference photos.

Mercury and Neo's sections nauseated Emerald as she skimmed them. Anyone who met Mercury and heard him speak would be immediately turned off, and although Emerald knew Neo was older than she looked, hearing Remnant fetishize the small girl made her stomach crawl. Her own section galled her, particularly when a random interviewee described her as a 'mint chocolate chip princess', but she felt a grudging sense of flattery at the unanimous consensus that she was most attractive when she was dispatching her opponents. Plus, the photo they used of her backside from the first round had a flattering light and perspective.

Then she idly scrolled down and her breath caught in her throat. Cinder's section detailed her performance in the 4v4 round, lamented her remaining behind in the 2v2 round, speculated on her limited past, and joked that she was a full huntress pretending to be a younger student (If only they knew). But the gallery was the crown jewel: It displayed a trove of high-resolution photos of her from every angle. They highlighted the curves of her torso and the contours of her abs beneath her bandages, the supple tone of her biceps, the lethal grace of her kicks, the sweat beading on her brow and lips…

Mercury smirked and took his scroll back. "That's not even the good stuff," he said, tapping at the scroll. "A lot of talented people made some pretty saucy artwork of all of us. I find the stuff involving me and you gross, but there was one of me and—"

"Mercury, if you finish that sentence I'll have Emerald trick the blonde into blowing your head off."

Mercury obeyed the command. Cinder stopped at a fork in the path and turned to her subordinates.

"Mercury, you and Neo come with me to the sparring grounds. We need to make sure you're ready for your match. Emerald, ensure that the tournament staff know we've selected Mercury to progress to the final round, then rest up. I want you fresh and alert when the time comes to play your part."

Emerald parted from the rest of her team as they went to train. As soon as she was out of sight, she bolted to the tournament administration office, filled out the forms for Mercury, and rushed back to their room at Beacon, locking the door behind her. She pulled up the article Mercury had shown her on his scroll to glean a few key search terms, entered them in CCTSearch, and clicked on the first promising link.

It ranged from tame, to merely unappealing, to downright vulgar. Cinder and Neo cuddling in modest pajamas, Mercury with the rest of the team posed like his personal cat-suited bodyguards, Emerald pinning the girl in the beret to the grass in the arena, Emerald and Mercury making out like the world was ending—Emerald stuck out her tongue and made a retching sound—and of course, multiple depictions of Mercury that would continue to inflate his ego.

Then she found it—lots of it: Art of Emerald and Cinder holding hands and strolling down the beach, sketches of them casually kissing, drawings of them getting progressively more aggressive in various contexts. Emerald found a piece that depicted her using the chains on her weapons in a manner she had never considered before and her cheeks turned bright crimson. She expanded her scroll to its widest screen, then stepped away to wedge a chair under the doorknob before she continued scrolling down. She was going to be here for a while.


	14. Cunning Challenge 02-6-2018

"Ladies, I'm sure you're wondering why I've gathered you all here today," Weiss said, standing in front of a blackboard.

"Nope!" Ruby chirped. "But I am curious who your new friend is."

"Yeah, me too." Nora said.

Neo rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"What Neo is trying to say is that it doesn't matter," Weiss said. "We all have one thing in common:"

"A thirst to protect the innocent?" Ruby asked.

"Unresolved romantic and sexual tension?" Nora asked.

"No, and—what? No! Not that! We're all very short!"

"Speak for yourself, Weiss. I'm not the one getting snippy."

"I MEAN"—Weiss stopped and cleared her throat, reining in her voice, before continuing in a prim tone—"I mean physically, not temperamentally."

Neo slapped a hand to her face.

"Oh," said Nora, leaning back in her chair. "That too. What's the problem with that?"

"No one takes us seriously! I met Neo in Vale when we were both trying to find something to address the lack of stature our small—stature—brought about. I took Neo seriously because I understand what it's like to be looked down on—metaphorically—by someone we wish to impress. People find Ruby childish and you dim because you're both so diminutive."

"And that has nothing to do with the fact that Ruby is 16?"

"Or that Nora talks about her weird dreams at lunch loud enough for the entire dining hall to hear?"

Weiss flexed her rapier until the metal creaked in protest. "Look: The point is that I have a plan to fix this, for all of us. Are you in?"

Ruby exchanged a glance with Nora. "I mean, I guess I'd like people to take me more seriously," Ruby said. "And if it's this important to you, I'd love to help."

Weiss nodded. "Nora?"

Nora shrugged and turned up her palms. "Honestly, I think you'd be better off just accepting your height and moving on—"

"I will pay you in a year's worth of gourmet pancake supplies."

"I'm in."

Neo exhaled, relieved.

"So how do you plan to solve this 'problem'?" Nora asked.

Neo stood and blinked across the room to stand on the opposite side of the blackboard from Weiss. She stuck a chart against the blackboard, drew a short blade from within an umbrella, and struck the chart with her blade like a pointer. Weiss flourished her own blade and pointed at a rough sketch at the center.

"We have devised the perfect plan."

…

Ruby followed Weiss into the courtyard, kneading her cloak in her hands. "Weiss, I'm having second thoughts about this," Ruby said. "She still hasn't forgotten the food fight."

"That's even better!" Weiss said. "That means there's precedent, which means she won't suspect we're up to something. Now let's get started; just like we rehearsed."

Weiss cleared her throat and centered herself. Then she exploded:

"RUBY ROSE! THAT IS THE LAST TIME YOU STEAL MY COFFEE!"

"Weiss, I'm not sure anyone is going to believe—AHHH!" Ruby leapt to the side as an ice-blue Boarbatusk rolled right past where she had stood. Weiss and the summoned beast charged at Ruby, who zigzagged across the courtyard as she fumbled to deploy Crescent Rose. The Boarbatusk tore up the grass and bowled over a pair of statues, while Weiss sliced down a pair of topiaries with swipes of her sword. Ruby eventually armed herself, firing Crescent Rose to shoot herself towards Weiss. Weiss dodged Ruby and positioned herself behind her by somersaulting over Ruby's attack. Instead of striking Weiss, Ruby decapitated a pair of statues. She spun around in time to block Weiss' next attack, and the two exchanged blows for several minutes, demolishing the courtyard. The fight would have continued for hours had a loud slam not sounded from the main classroom building.

The doors had swung open so hard they had scuffed the stone walls. Glynda Goodwitch strode across the courtyard, her face livid.

"MY OFFICE, NOW!"

…

Nora stood nearby, hiding in a patch of bushes. She wore several loose chains around her neck like a collection of festive beads. A set of jumper cables were clipped to the chains, and trailed back to an electrical breaker. When Nora saw the doors slam open, she turned to Neo, who stood at the breaker, and flashed the girl a thumbs-up.

Neo flipped the breaker, sending enough voltage into Nora for her to levitate an inch off the ground. After a few seconds, Neo shut off the breaker. Nora removed her charging jewelry and walked towards Neo. Neo blanched, but refrained from bolting. Nora grabbed Neo by the wrist and led her to a spot on the wall below Glynda's window on the sixth floor.

"Elevator up!" Nora exclaimed.

With a heaving motion she sent Neo flying. Neo didn't scream but the wind whistling past her open mouth replicated the sound fairly well. She felt herself slow as she passed Glynda's window and stuck out her umbrella. She caught the windowsill as she fell back down, dangling precariously for a moment before she managed to mantle onto the windowsill and slip inside.

The office was what you'd expect from Glynda: Formal and businesslike, with a few refined decorative touches: Two simple paintings and an umbrella stand shaped like a small cherub.

Neo immediately found her goal: a mug of tea sitting on the desk. She retrieved a small packet from within her coat and poured the contents into the tea. Her part of the plan completed, she walked to the door. She was reaching for the knob when she heard loud footsteps approaching. Neo's eyes darted around the room, looking for a place to hide. She would fit under the desk, but Glynda would probably kick her and discover her. She could float down from the window, but from this high up she might end up floating into the Emerald Forest. She could fit in the filing cabinet, but she might also get locked inside. Her eyes fell on the umbrella stand.

She hid it behind one of the window curtains, stood where it had sat a moment ago, and used her Semblance to change her appearance and tint her skin and clothing the color of bronze. She froze just in time for Glynda to step inside, leading Ruby and Weiss into her office.

As she lectured the two huntresses, Neo stood painfully still, fighting to keep her extended arm from trembling while she held her umbrella. Her nose began to itch, a sensation that escalated to a persistent burn as Glynda continued to lecture her students, sipping her tea between rants. Eventually, she dismissed them from the office, slamming the door behind them. Glynda worked at her desk for a few minutes, continuing to drink her tea. After a while she yawned and stretched her arms over her head. She packed up her desk and left her office, moving with a lumbering lethargy.

As soon as the door closed, Neo gasped and began clawing at her nose with her free hand. She would have kept scratching had she not heard a heavy thump from outside the office. Neo peeked out the door to find Glynda sprawled along the bench sitting outside her office door, snoring with dignified breaths. Neo poked Glynda's foot with her umbrella to ensure she wouldn't wake up. Then she quickly undid the teacher's boots, yanked them off, and darted down the hallway.

…

"A month of detention?" Ruby exclaimed. "Weiss, I really hope this was worth it."

"It will be in the end. I just need to find Neo and Nora. Once we're reunited, I can show you all how joint custody of Glynda's boots will work, and we'll never have to suffer the indignity of being short again."

Ruby and Weiss came across Nora close to where she'd flung Neo into the sky.

"Did she pull it off?" Weiss asked.

"Sure did!" Nora said. "Neo just left to get the first installment of my payment."

Weiss blinked. "I was going to pay you alone, Neo had nothing to do with that."

"In that case, she played us like a cheap plastic trumpet."

Weiss screamed and fell to her knees, tugging at her hair. She pounded her fists against the ground and wailed until she was panting for breath. When she'd exhausted herself she stood, dusting the dirt off of her knees.

"It's fine. I drafted a backup plan."

…

"Seriously, where is Weiss?" Yang asked. "If she doesn't hurry up, we won't be able to sneak her off campus. The first Saturday shuttle is the only one we'll be able to hide her in the crowd."

Ruby sighed. "She's being dumb."

"You're one to talk."

"I think I see her," Blake said, looking up from where she sat. Her brow furrowed. "What on Remnant is she doing?"

Yang turned to look. She gaped at Weiss. Ruby palmed her face and groaned. Weiss was walking towards them, wearing a set of black leather boots with brass buckles. They put her a few inches taller than Yang, but she stumbled in the oversized shoes like a foal taking its first steps.

"What are those?" Blake asked.

"These," Weiss said proudly, "Are how I will finally get the respect I deserve from my creepy little brother."

Yang stared for a moment. Then she doubled over laughing. "I don't know, Weiss. Getting respect from the jerks in your family is a _tall order_."

Weiss planted a kick into Yang's stomach, knocking her to the ground. The motion made Weiss start to topple over. Ruby moved to catch her, preventing her from faceplanting into the flagstones, but Weiss still brought both of them down in a tangled pile of limbs. Yang laughed harder, her eyes tearing.

…

Cinder slammed into the wall, then slid down it unconscious, crumpling in a heap next to an incapacitated Mercury. Emerald stared at their attacker. Taller than Cinder, with a toned and lean body and vibrant two-toned hair. Their attacker drew a blade and leveled it at Emerald, making her shake with fear. She held the blade poised to skewer her through the face for a few moments. Then she rolled her eyes and whipped her head to one side in a 'Beat it' gesture. Emerald shouldered Cinder with Mercury's help and they disappeared into the night.

Neo looked down at herself and allowed herself a tiny smile. She had expected Goodwitch's boots to give her a small boost, but they had done so much more: the old bag did have actual magic to her name.

A familiar groan snapped her from her reverie. She hurried over to a set of crates. Roman lay behind them, bruised from his discussion with Cinder. He sat up and looked over Neo. His eyebrows raised in mild surprise for a moment before his face returned to its usual smirk.

"I always said you had room to grow, but it looks like even I lowballed you."

Neo chuckled and helped Roman to his feet.

…

Velvet and Fox stepped onto the third floor landing from the elevator, then paused.

"Do you hear that?" Fox asked.

Velvet nodded. They both hurried down the hall to their room and flung open the door. A large bundle of blankets, secured into a roll by a few belts, rolled across the floor slamming into beds and desks. Fox took a cautious step towards it when the roll stopped, letting out a muffled sound of triumph. There was a tearing sound as a hand gripping a combat knife pierced the fabric. The knife cut a slit a few feet long along the length of the bundle, and a moment later Coco pulled the upper half of her body out, her hair disheveled.

"Where are my goddamn boots?"


End file.
